
Class . 
Book. 






Copyrights 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



Campaigning for 
Christ in Japan 



By 

REV. S. H. ^AINRIGHT, M.D., D.D. 

Missionary of the Methodist Episeopat Church, South 
General Secretary of the Christian Lit- 
erature SoeietiQ of Japan 



Nashville, Tenn. 

Dallas, Tex.; Richmond, Va. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South 

Smith & Lamar, Agents 

1915 



.W3 



Copyright, 1915 

BY 

Smith & Lamar 



o?. 



I 24 016 

©CU420473 
^ f , 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Introduction 5 

Fresh Stores of Spiritual Force Claimed by 

Corporate Action 9 

Campaign in Okayama Prefecture. 

I. The Stone of Persecution at Takahashi 20 

II. Breakdown of Bushido Morality Proclaimed. 25 

III. A Merciful Physician at Kasaoka 29 

IV. A Night with the Mayor of Kurashiki 33 

V. A Young Man's Prayer Answered after His 

Death 37 

VI. The Close of the Campaign at Okayama 42 

Campaign on the Northwest Coast of Japan. 

I. A Fervent Meeting for "Ethical Culture". . . 47 

II. A Second Visit to the Northwest Coast 59 

III. All Things Lost and the Best Thing Gained. 64 

IV. The Church in the Country Town 68 

V. Conservative Niigata Beginning to Change. 71 

Campaign at Shidzuoka, Hamamatsu, and Kega. 

I. On the Shores of the Great Ocean 77 

II. The Sabbath the Corner Stone of Civiliza- 
tion 85 

(3) 



4 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

Campaign in Three Prefectures. 

HirosJiima. n 

Page. 

I. Tribal Consciousness and Consciousness of 

Sonship g9 

II. The Fall of the Devil's Castle 94 

III. Coming Again with Rejoicing 99 

IV. An Oregon Ward in a Japanese Hospital. . . 106 
V. A Converted Publican in the Pastorate 110 

VI. Preaching in a Railway Station 115 

VII. "No Pleasure in Ambiguity" 119 

VIII. Enthusiasm for Christ among Students 123 

Yokohama. 
"Apart from Christ, No True Individual". . . 126 

Tokyo. 

I. A Preparatory Meeting in Tokyo 133 

II. Preaching at Vanity Fair 139 

III. The Quaker Testimony in Tokyo 145 

IV. From a Buddhist Carnival to a Christian 

Rally 148 

V. A Lopsided State of Society 155 

71. A Buddhist Priest Converted Because a 

Christian Scrubbed His Back 158 

VII. The Mayor of Tokyo on the Need of Spir- 
itual Civilization 162 



INTRODUCTION. 

Dr. Wainright has done for the Church 
a good and timely service in this book. Japan 
has not held the place in the imagination of the 
Church at home for the last fifteen years that 
she held before or that some other great mis- 
sion fields have held. After the first wild surge 
of interest in Western life, there had come the 
slack, maybe the ebb; and some have even 
thought and said that the Church's opportu- 
nity in Japan was lost for a generation, for a 
century, if not for all time. But missionaries 
have insisted that this was not true and that 
perhaps the heart of the nation never was wider 
open to the gospel than now. Missionary sec- 
retaries and other leaders traveling through 
the East have come back to remind us and 
earnestly to insist that Japan still holds the 
key to the Orient; that as Japan goes, so goes 
the East; and if we hope to win Korea and 
China and to hold them for Christ, it is neces- 
sary that we advance at once upon Japan. 

This conviction is shared by the Japanese 
leaders themselves and moved them to definite 
action when in the meeting in Tokyo, held by 

(5) 



6 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

Dr. Mott in April of 1913 under the auspices 
of the Continuation Committee of the Edin- 
burgh Conference, some of these leaders offered 
a resolution calling for "a great forward move- 
ment among the Churches with a view to a na- 
tion-wide preaching of the gospel." One of the 
objects of this forward movement was to be a 
"widespread presentation of gospel truth to the 
whole non-Christian community." A great evan- 
gelistic campaign was planned and carried out 
with remarkable efficiency; and while it was 
not characterized by the spectacular features 
throughout that characterized a somewhat simi- 
lar movement in China, it was not without real 
Pentecostal tokens ; and the meetings were ev- 
erywhere attended with such interest, such 
depth of concern and thoughtfulness on the 
part of the people as certainly foretoken yet 
greater manifestations in the immediate future. 
Dr. Wainright, who for many years was one 
of our very best missionaries to Japan, who 
knows the language and people as few mission- 
aries ever come to know them, and who, after 
a few years' stay in the homeland, now returns 
to Japan as the Secretary of the Christian 
Literature Society of Japan, wrought in that 
campaign throughout and tells the story in 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 7 

this book with such naturalness, such detail, 
and jet such vividness of interest as will at- 
tract the reader and communicate to him the 
conviction of the author, who in a recent private 
note said : "It is our profound conviction that it 
is about time Japan should have an inning as 
regards the interest the Church has in the fields 
where its missions are enterprised." It is time, 
and this interesting story of Dr. Wainright's 
should hasten that consummation in the hearts 
of thousands of our people in every part of the 
Church. E. H. Rawlings. 

Nashville, Tenn., October 12, 1915. 



FRESH STORES OF SPIRITUAL FORCE 
CLAIMED BY CORPORATE ACTION. 

A conference was held in Tokyo, Japan, 
April 3-11, 1913, under the direction of Dr. 
John R. Mott. It was one of a series of con- 
ferences conducted by him in various mission 
fields under the auspices of the Continuation 
Committee of the Edinburgh Missionary Con- 
ference. There were present at the conference 
in Tokyo representatives of the Japanese 
Churches and of the various Protestant mis- 
sionary bodies working in Japan. Rev. Bish- 
op Serge, of the Russian Orthodox Mission in 
Japan, also attended the sessions and took some 
part in the discussions. 

The conference had only advisory powers 
and included in the program outlined nothing 
more than the adoption of findings concerning 
various mission problems, after deliberation in 
conference and discussion in committees. An 
unexpected resolution, however, was brought 
forward by the Japanese members present, call- 
ing for a great forward movement among the 
Churches with a view to a nation-wide preach- 

(9) 



10 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

ing of the gospel. The resolution called for 
(1) a deeper and more exultant experience of 
the life of Christ in the individual soul, result- 
ing in more earnest efforts to lead others to 
the Saviour; (2) a widespread presentation of 
gospel truth to the whole non-Christian com- 
munity. 

The conference heartily approved of the pro- 
posal, though all who had taken part in the 
deliberations at Tokyo did not unite in the 
campaign when it was inaugurated. Still, the 
movement embraced the great majority of Prot- 
estant bodies, both Japanese Churches and mis- 
sion organizations, and was undertaken as a 
united effort. The Edinburgh Conference, in 
denning one of the purposes for creating the 
Continuation Committee, declared that it was 
hoped "by corporate action to claim fresh 
stores of spiritual force for the evangelization 
of the world." The movement in Japan was in 
accord with the spirit of the action thus taken. 
The original Continuation Committee, it was 
thought furthermore, would be a means of 
"keeping alive the vision and of spreading the 
spirit and atmosphere of the Edinburgh gath- 
ering." At Tokyo the Japanese members of 
the conference were not content with the vision 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 11 

and the atmosphere of the mountain top, as ex- 
perienced in days of conference and prayer, but 
were concerned as to the welfare of the multi- 
tudes of their own people upon the plain, vexed 
with the evils from which Christ came to deliver 
men. Consequently, though not embraced with- 
in the scope of the conference as one of its ob- 
jects, the national evangelistic campaign is the 
one outstanding result of the gathering in 
Tokyo, held on the occasion of Dr. Mott's visit. 
There seems to be cooperation between grace 
and providence. The nation-wide plan, formu- 
lated and adopted in the atmosphere of prayer 
and under the gracious guidance of the Holy 
Spirit, was found afterwards to correspond, by 
an adaptation that could not have been acci- 
dental, to the need of the nation as brought to 
light under the working of providence in the 
larger field lying outside the Christian Church. 
About the time the conference was held in 
Tokyo a young German, formerly employed in 
that city, was being tried in a court of justice 
in Germany. It came out during the trial that 
papers stolen by him in Tokyo contained in- 
formation pointing to bribery practiced on a 
great scale in Japanese naval circles. The mat- 
ter was taken up by the Japanese press and be- 



12 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

came a national scandal. Rev. M. Uemura, 
pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Tokyo and 
one of the foremost Christians of the empire, 
speaking at the preparatory meeting held at 
Tokyo for the National Evangelistic Campaign, 
lamented that everywhere could be discerned the 
existence of an unwholesome atmosphere. The 
recent scandals in naval circles and at the head 
temple of one of the leading Buddhist sects 
had the effect of proclaiming the moral bank- 
ruptcy of the Japanese people. Over against 
these unhappy conditions, said Mr. Uemura, 
there stood the National Evangelistic Cam- 
paign, enterprised by the Christians at a most 
timely moment — a movement in which the mis- 
sionaries from abroad and the Japanese pas- 
tors and workers representing various denomi- 
national bodies were leagued together for an 
earnest effort. The influence of this movement 
could not but be felt in the whole Far East and 
even in wider circles. For their own encourage- 
ment they might well call to mind the unshak- 
able conviction and abounding hope of the 
prophets of Israel at the time of the nation's 
captivity. Though their visions of a coming 
daydawn were like castles built in the air, yet 
their faith was such that their dreams were as 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 13 

real to them as tangible realities within their 
reach. What the prophets achieved could not 
be exhibited in statistical tables. Their victo- 
ries were spiritual. What was needed in Japan 
was something more than committee organiza- 
tions. Faith was essential, and a seriousness of 
purpose founded upon spiritual experience and 
awakening. 

The method of conducting the campaign was 
unlike the evangelism with which we are fa- 
miliar in the American Churches. Campaigns 
were laid out for different parts of the country, 
usually by provinces, and to follow one another 
in succession. The local committees chose the 
speakers they desired to have visit their district, 
and, if possible, the services of these speakers 
were engaged for them by the central commit- 
tees. Meetings were held for two and three 
days at each place, with a change of speakers 
each day, or rather with an exchange of speak- 
ers; for while two speakers were in one place 
other speakers were addressing audiences in 
a neighboring place, and every day there was 
a general swapping of places. It was thus 
that the campaign was carried on — a plan which 
enabled the committee to throw the leading 
Christians of the empire into a certain locality, 



14 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

where they delivered addresses in homes, school- 
houses, theaters, public halls, and churches. 
Among the speakers were pastors, educators, 
members of Parliament, and business men. The 
messages were not always as directly evangel- 
istic as those we hear in revival meetings. The 
utterances were conditioned by the audiences to 
which they were addressed. Often the greater 
number of those present had their first experi- 
ence in listening to a public presentation of 
Christian truth. 

The results of the work were very encourag- 
ing. The leading people of the communities 
visited were drawn out to the meetings and lis- 
tened with interest to the addresses. Women's 
meetings were everywhere held as a part of 
the program and were well attended. Hundreds 
and even thousands of students in the schools 
heard Christian preaching at students' meet- 
ings, which were in many places held in the pub- 
lic school buildings. At certain places working- 
men were assembled — at Moji, for example — 
and as many as two thousand attended the 
Christian services held especially for them. 

Though many names were enrolled as inquir- 
ers, the principal good achieved during the first 
year of the campaign has been the quickening 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 15 

of the Churches and the creation of a larger 
opportunity for them. At places where public 
services were held the Christian cause almost 
invariably gained favor with the local commu- 
nity, and a desire was awakened in the souls of 
many for a fuller knowledge of the truths of 
the Christian religion. The direct appeal, ei- 
ther to the deeper emotions or practical activi- 
ties of those present in the audience, is absent 
in Japanese preaching. The traditional sense 
of propriety is against the use of the second 
personal pronoun ; and it has not been the cus- 
tom among the teachers of the past — Shintoist, 
Buddhist, or Confucian — to aim their discourse 
at the will, much less to press with the urgency 
of evangelistic zeal for an immediate decision. 
Moreover, the audiences were made up of per- 
sons many of whom were strangers to Christian 
truth, to whom an apologetic message had often 
to be delivered. 

Various themes were discussed by the speak- 
ers in their approach to the minds of their 
hearers. Sometimes it was the secular policy 
of national education and the moral barrenness 
of this policy; sometimes it was the one-sided 
development of the new Japan in material civi- 
lization ; often it was the gigantic evils growing 



16 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

up under the prevalent materialism and the 
need of searching moral reforms. Frequently 
the speakers confined themselves to a presenta- 
tion of the Christian gospel or to an exposition 
of Christian truth. Always the Christian reli- 
gion was defended, usually with earnest and 
deep conviction, as the only hope for the solu- 
tion of Japan's great problem — namely, the 
promotion of a "spiritual civilization," to use 
a term current in Japan. In this present cam- 
paign preaching has been more direct than 
usual, and, as never before, Christianity has 
been set forth as a religion of redemption. In- 
deed, the Japanese are beginning to see that a 
religion of redemption is not necessarily hostile 
to education and culture, but may be the only 
enduring foundation on which education and 
culture can be established. 

The writer of the following pages had some 
part in the campaign, though not an important 
part, as a member of the various committees 
and as one of the speakers. He has not under- 
taken here a comprehensive account of the 
campaign, though such an account, if prepared, 
would be of interest outside of Japan. What 
one will find in the chapters which follow is 
merely a sketch of the movement as seen in its 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 17 

working on various occasions and in different 
parts of the country. It is believed that good 
will come to the Church in the homelands 
through an acquaintance with this nation-wide 
movement and with the leaders who are promi- 
nent in the native Churches and who are mani- 
festing that zeal in Japan which has charac- 
terized the labor and energy of the faithful in 
Christ Jesus in all ages, from the time the first 
witnesses went forth from Jerusalem in obedi- 
ence to our Lord's great commission. The ex- 
perience of Christian history has been greatly 
enriched in our day through new and diverse 
unfoldings of the spirit of Christ in many 
lands. The diversities of gifts, ministrations, 
and workings are but further disclosures of the 
dispensation of the mystery hid for ages in 
God. 

And if there be diversities of operations and 
the same spirit, there are also diversities of 
operations within the same body of Christ. 
The campaign is a witness to the non-Chris- 
tian population of the unity in variety among 
the different denominational bodies working in 
Japan. The weakening effect of denomination- 
alism on the mission field is often exaggerated. 
The friendly relations existing among Prot- 
2 



18 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

estant denominations and the various forms of 
cooperation undertaken by them serve to dis- 
arm criticism and to give evidence of a true 
conception of unity, a unity which presupposes 
variety and is not at the expense of variety. 
A most healthy condition exists among Prot- 
estant bodies in Japan as regards the question 
of unity. There is a great variety of friend- 
ly relations maintained among diverse organi- 
zations, but comity is not pressed to the point 
of impracticability. 

One remark further may not be out of place, 
inasmuch as the account may be disappoint- 
ing to some not very familiar with conditions 
on the mission field by the circumstance that a 
great united movement for the preaching of 
the gospel is under way, and yet the number 
of conversions reported at places where serv- 
ices were held is small. But it should be kept 
in mind by those who wait and pray with faith 
and hope for the Christian transformation of 
Japan that a gradual and even a slow growth 
may be a surer evidence of conversion than a 
mass movement in which the turning in is by 
multitudes or by villages and provinces. The 
end sought, let it be understood, is the trans- 
formation, not of Christianity, but of the peo- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 19 

pie. The former is the broad and easy way, 
the latter the straight and difficult path. Im- 
patience would counsel compromise between the 
demands of Christ and the habits of the past, 
a certain understanding or concord between 
Christ and Belial. But the missionary aim is 
to connect the old life with the new religion. It 
is not the purpose of true evangelism to win an 
easy victory by allowing old customs to survive 
with the new life. 



CAMPAIGN IN OKAYAMA PREFEC- 
TURE. 

I. Stone of Persecution at Takahashi. 

On May 15 1 left Tokyo by express train for 
the Okayama Prefecture, a district rich in ag- 
riculture and manufacture in Central West Ja- 
pan. A week had been set apart by the Com- 
mittee of the Western Section for meetings in 
Okayama and auxiliary cities as a part of the 
National Evangelistic Campaign. A number 
of speakers, lay and clerical, had been drafted 
into the service, two of whom were assigned to 
each public meeting. 

My first service was at Takahashi. Leaving 
the main line at Okayama, I reached Tatai in 
one hour by light railway, passing through 
Inari, an important center of superstitious 
worship. From Tatai I took a jinrikisha and 
followed the winding course of the Takahashi 
River along a picturesque road, between high 
mountains and by the side of a clear stream 
flowing over a bed of gray pebbles. It was 
one of the most beautiful valleys I had ever 
seen. As evening drew on, the valley a distance 
ahead became lustrous with a silver mist, and 
the crest of the mountains glowed with a fringe 
of light from the rays of the declining sun. It 
(20) 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 21 

seemed that I was traveling, not toward the 
old military castle at Takahashi, on the top 
of the highest summit there, but to some en- 
chanted region with golden castles of which the 
Japanese dream. Stone slabs along the way- 
side bearing the inscription, "Gods of the 
Land," monuments to the noteworthy dead, 
shrines and temples, and thatched cottages, in 
which could be heard and seen the domestic 
loom weaving matting for the export trade, 
added quaintness to the scenes through which 
I passed. 

About three miles this side of Takahashi, ac- 
cording to Japanese custom, the pastor and 
one of the official members were waiting to 
meet us, Professor Koyama and myself; and a 
little farther on six or seven members were sta- 
tioned to give us a welcome to their commu- 
nity. No sooner were we seated on the floor 
in a good Japanese home, the hospitality of 
which we were to enjoy, than other members of 
the Church (Congregational) called and ex- 
tended to us a cordial greeting. We found our- 
selves warmed to the task by this hearty re- 
ception, assured, as we were, of that sympa- 
thetic hearing which, next to grace, has the 
effect of unlocking the preacher's soul. The 



22 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

bustle at the church when we entered made all 
the more certain to us the favorablcness of our 
opportunity. Indeed, the church building was 
filled by eight o'clock. About seventy-five boys 
sat in front on the floor. Every seat was occu- 
pied below and in the gallery, while men were 
standing at the back of the room and outside 
every window. When the second message had 
been delivered, it was a quarter to eleven 
o'clock, and all had remained. In fact, no one 
seemed to be wearied or inclined to hurry away. 

I slept with comfort on the floor between 
padded quilts, though the sawdust pillow, in 
the form of a cylinder, was not particularly 
restful. From the numerous kinds of fish and 
delicacies and from the rice bowl I partook 
with chopsticks of those things suited to my 
taste, provided by a generous hospitality. The 
host was an intelligent man, and as a pastime 
he cultivated in the inclosed area, or court, two 
or three hundred pots of the Rhodea Japonica. 
Some of these were highly valued — such, for 
example, as defied artificial manipulation and 
expressed the unyielding energies of nature; 
forms deviating from the normal type, or, in 
other words, sports. 

I remained over for the service the next 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 23 

morning at eleven o'clock, it being the Sabbath. 
To a good-sized congregation I spoke on the 
theme of the cross. On the platform behind 
me there lay a rough stone the size of a man's 
head, into which had been chiseled, in Japanese, 
"Stone of Persecution." In the foundation of 
the building similar stones had been laid, gath- 
ered up after an attack on the first preaching 
place in that community, which had been de- 
molished with these stones. Now, leading men 
in the community were members of the Church 
and enjoyed in peace the word which at first 
they received in much affliction. A theme like 
that of the cross of Christ would have a pecul- 
iar significance to a congregation with a his- 
tory like this, dating its first beginnings from 
a time of persecution. 

There were other reasons for speaking in ex- 
altation of the cross on the present occasion. 
In the Okayama Prefecture, where the cam- 
paign we were in had been laid, various reli- 
gious movements in recent years had sprung 
up, like weeds from neglected soil. One of 
these movements is ruled by very worldly mo- 
tives. It is called Konkokyo, or "Religion of 
Shining Gold." It seeks, as has so often been 
done, to beguile the religious instincts of man 



24 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

by relying upon the satisfactions of this world. 
No religion, not even Buddhism, strikes so deep 
a chord as did Christ when he said : "Whosoever 
will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow me." Asceticism is 
not cross-bearing. It shuns the conflict, while 
Christian self-denial sets its "face steadfastly 
to go to Jerusalem." No wonder that it was 
far from Paul to glory, "save in the cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." Through the cross 
the world was crucified unto him and he unto 
the world. He had determined to know noth- 
ing among the Corinthians "save Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified." No sage or philosopher, 
no "founder" of a religion, had ever faced hu- 
man woe or the world's opposition and gone 
into the depths of human sorrow, even into the 
bitterness of death, as Christ had done. He 
was the suffering Servant, who made atonement 
for sins by the sacrifice of himself. The path 
of the cross is not that of the worldling nor 
that of the recluse. Jesus accepted a mission, 
the fulfillment of which required that he give 
himself over "to the great game of life." But 
not for self-assertion or self-pleasure; he 
pleased not himself, and he came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 25 

Even in the mountain districts in Japan one 
finds everywhere peaceful and lawful occupa- 
tions of farms and villages. Wild life has long 
passed away. The next day, on the return 
journey, I met boatmen walking by the river 
marge pulling their boats upstream by means 
of long ropes, the longest I had ever seen. In 
their flat-bottomed craft they had transported 
the products of village and farm from the 
mountain districts to the lowlands, where there 
was connection with steamships and railway 
trains. I met carts heavily loaded with an 
artificial fertilizer, each drawn by a single 
horse. The animals, covered with perspiration, 
were cruelly goaded to their excessive tasks. 
The Buddhists are fond of reminding us that 
Christianity does not contain among its pre- 
cepts mercy toward the lower animals. As a 
matter of fact, dumb brutes fare far better at 
the hands of Christians than the treatment re- 
ceived by them on the part of Buddhists. 

II. Breakdown of Bushido Morality 
Proclaimed. 

On May 18 I returned to Okayama and took 
a light railway to Tsuyama, a castle town in 
the hills on a high plateau, at a distance of two 



26 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

hours by rail. Madam Hirooka, with her valet, 
was on the same train and was to be my co- 
worker in the meetings at Tsuyama. She is a 
daughter of the Mitsui family, one of the 
wealthiest in Japan* and best known in indus- 
trial circles. She herself is very wealthy and 
has large investments. She was converted two 
and a half years ago at the age of sixty-two. 
She wore foreign attire, including a foreign 
hat, spoke a little broken English, and proved 
to be a most interesting companion. Six hun- 
dred women gathered in the church for an 
afternoon meeting and listened with profound 
interest and attention to the addresses, espe- 
cially to that of Madam Hirooka. At night 
she told the mixed audience, which filled the 
church to the utmost capacity, the story of her 
conversion. It was a beautiful testimony to 
Christ, related with great simplicity, the thank- 
ful expression of one who felt that she had 
trifled away time and come near losing heaven 
and her own soul. In truth, I have heard no 
Japanese Christian speak who had a truer per- 
ception of the significance of the word "grace," 
the strictest test of one's understanding of the 
genius of the Christian religion. 

Fortunately, I had chosen for my theme the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 27 

Christian salvation. In the meetings in Japan 
they insist upon having a subject for one's 
sermon, and this, as well as the name of the 
speaker, is written on a long strip of paper in 
perpendicular writing and suspended in the 
front of the room where all can read it. At 
the close of the meeting the pastor asked all 
to retire who wished to do so during the sing- 
ing of a hymn and others to remain for prayer. 
The solemnity of the moment was impressive. 
Scarcely more than ten persons left the room. 
All remained seated. The sobs of women could 
be heard in the audience, and the men sat with 
bowed heads as prayer after prayer, such as 
are fashioned by the Spirit, went up to God for 
those present, for the community, and for the 
nation. 

Madam Hirooka had a message on her heart 
born of deep convictions. She proclaimed the 
failure of the Bushido morality. The corrup- 
tions exposed recently were most scandalous in 
naval circles where Bushido was strongest. I 
recalled while she was speaking a stupid arti- 
cle written by the editor of the Hibbert Journal 
in praise of Bushido at the close of the Russo- 
Japanese War, entitled "Is the Moral Suprem- 
acy of Christendom Threatened?" Another 



28 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

striking point in her address at Tsuyama was 
the warning she sounded that the Japanese peo- 
ple were in danger of committing the error that 
brought destruction upon the Jewish nation. 
"If we," said Madam Hirooka, "continue to 
regard ourselves as a peculiar people and fail 
to embrace God's world religion, the nation can- 
not escape its doom." 

With Rev. S. S. White, in whose quiet home 
I received generous hospitality and who is liv- 
ing at this outpost alone, his wife and chil- 
dren being absent in America, I climbed to the 
top of the castle hill the next morning before 
our train left for Okayama. We passed by 
walls of solid masonry, along a winding course 
through numerous gateways, until we reached 
the highest and innermost defenses of the old 
fortress. What passions and struggles in the 
internal history of feudal Japan these castles 
throughout the country bear witness to ! Not 
only so; the patient toil of a subject popula- 
tion has left here a monument to itself. What 
a gigantic task to bring such massive stones 
from a distance and chisel them into suitable 
forms and raise them to their place in the cas- 
tle walls on the tops of high mountains ! At 
Takahashi the castle was on the crest of a 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 29 

mountain three thousand feet above the level 
of the sea — a castle in the air, an impregnable 
fortress — reached only through the winding ap- 
proach along the Takahashi Valley. Here also 
at Tsuyama, before the days of machinery, a 
mighty defense had been built, from the walls 
of which the entire plateau around Tsuyama 
could be seen. Made obsolete by modern meth- 
ods of warfare, these massive structures now 
remain simply as relics of the past. 

III. A Merciful Physician at Kasaoka. 

From Okayama, on May 17, I went to Ka- 
saoka, an important city by the seashore, the 
shore of the Inland Sea, and on the trunk line 
of the Imperial Government Railway. The of- 
ficial members of the Churches were at the sta- 
tion to show the usual courtesies. We re- 
mained for a while at the hotel where we were 
to be entertained. Professor Hino, of the 
Doshisha, was with me to speak that night. 
Nothing was left undone for our comfort. 
That night again the church was filled. Again 
all listened without show of weariness until 
eleven o'clock. Many of the prominent people 
of the community, we were told afterwards, 
were in the audience. Here and there in the 



30 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

crowded house the characteristic robes of the 
Buddhist priesthood indicated the presence of 
priests. Some persons came up afterwards 
from the audience who could speak good Eng- 
lish and who had spent many years in the 
United States. One of these spoke of having 
met Dwight L. Moody and Lyman Abbott. 

It is remarkable how, with the entrance of 
the gospel, the spirit of humanity begins to 
manifest itself. Doors of hope are opened to 
all classes of discouraged souls. There is some- 
thing as spontaneous as it is beautiful in Chris- 
tian charity. In this prefecture, for example, 
a Japanese Christian became widely know T n in 
connection with an orphan asylum, of which he 
was the head until his death recently. I refer 
to the late Mr. Ishii, of Okayama. Here at 
Kasaoka Dr. Sasai expressed the wish that I 
would take an interest in his scheme for estab- 
lishing a great sanitarium for those who were 
suffering from the white plague, a disease which 
is making ravages with the population of Japan. 

I went with Dr. Sasai to the shore of the 
Inland Sea, a body of water remarkable every- 
where for delicate charm and beauty and for 
the quaintness of its numerous islands. We 
climbed to an elevated position on the shore. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 31 

There seemed to be healing in a look at the 
calm, untroubled waters stretching out before 
us. In their clear depths, as in a dream, there 
appeared a reflection of sails, hills, clouds, and 
overbending sky. A sampan passed along just 
below us, lazily propelled by a man standing 
at the great oar, the blade of which sweeps back 
and forth on a pivot at the stern and plows 
deep into the water. From where we stood the 
craft seemed to move along on the surface with- 
out causing the faintest ripple in the quiet sea. 
Dr. Sasai pointed to an island not far away, 
set like a gem in the midst of the scene, and re- 
marked that it was his desire to acquire the 
entire island for the purpose he had in mind 
of developing a great sanitarium. He added 
that the project was the outcome of a purely 
Christian motive on his part. 

In nothing is the Far East more at one with 
itself than in the worship paid to the departed 
dead. On the top of the hill from which we 
were looking the ground had been leveled down. 
At one end of the space thus cleared there were 
three monuments, raised in memory of soldiers 
who had gone forth from Kasaoka and had been 
slain during the Saigo rebellion or the war 
with China or with Russia. Once a year a 



32 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

service is held here, common throughout Japan, 
called "shokonsai." Intelligent Japanese de- 
clare that the service now is nothing more than 
a memorial occasion, but to the people it is 
still worship of the departed dead. At the 
Shinto shrines throughout the country the wor- 
ship continues ; yet the State has declared that 
its own observance of the Shinto cultus is not 
to be looked upon as being religious in sig- 
nificance, it is a State ceremony. 

The Salvation Army, the Methodists, and the 
Congregationalists had united at Kasaoka for 
the local campaign. Enjoying a good degree 
of popularity among the Japanese, the Salva- 
tion Army is extending its work into the in- 
terior and, without the ordinances, is assum- 
ing the form of an ecclesiastical body, or 
Church. I asked the young officer (a Japa- 
nese) if the ordinances were administered to 
those who united with their organization. He 
replied that they had nothing but a "swearing 
in" ceremony. The preaching service was very 
effective. There was much enthusiasm among 
the local Christians for the cause. The results 
of the meetings could not be fully known, as 
the net was not cast. Their plan was to follow 
up the public work with personal visitations. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 33 

Along this line of railway, which extends 
from Osaka to Shimonoseki along the shores of 
the Inland Sea, numerous industries are spring- 
ing up — commercial enterprises, factories, and 
mining industries. The most formidable obsta- 
cle with which we meet is the secularity of 
mind everywhere prevalent. The industrial 
movement has rendered more difficult the task 
of awakening spiritual interest and that zeal 
in the flame of which "life is doubly life." A 
transition to a new environment produces a 
new type of man. In the olden days prosper- 
ity scarcely entered into the minds of men, even 
as a Utopian dream. Now the wakeful hours are 
filled with thoughts of gain, toward the acquisi- 
tion of which one's best energies are exerted. 

IV. A Night with the Mayor of Kurashiki. 

From Tsuyama we returned to Okayama on 
May 19 and thence took a train on the main 
line to Kurashiki, two stations below Okayama. 
Here there are modern factories and wealth. 
Some of the leading business men and officials 
are Christians. Rev. T. Miyagawa, Chairman 
of the Evangelistic Committee of the Western 
Section and one of the foremost pastors of the 
nation, was with me. His preaching was ear- 
3 



34 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

nest and courageous. He did not spare the 
nation's sins, the corruption recently exposed 
in the navy, in one of the greatest Buddhist 
sects, and in the household department. In 
fact, Japanese preaching has undergone a 
change recently in the presence of national 
evils. Hitherto the preachers have not been 
inclined, as Bunyan would say, "to roar 
against sin." Now, like Savonarola to Italy, 
their cry to the nation is: "Your sins have 
made us prophets." The inclination among 
Japanese preachers has been rather to inform 
the intellect. Now they seek to grip the con- 
science by relating particular evils to the moral 
law. One preacher, however, speaking with me 
at a certain place in this campaign, discoursed 
abstractly on "Truth." To discourse in an 
evangelistic campaign in a philosophical man- 
ner on truth was as awkward as the attempt 
of Porphyry, for example, to improve the three 
Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love by 
adding truth as a fourth virtue. 

Mr. Miyagawa's vigorous sermon was, for 
the time being at least, a refutation of the crit- 
icism voiced by some of the younger ministers 
in the Japanese Churches. It has been said by 
some of them that the Christianity of the pio- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 35 

neers in the Japanese ministry smacks unduly 
of Confucianism. The early converts who en- 
tered the ministry were, almost without ex- 
ception, sons of Samurai houses and were 
trained according to the Confucian and Bushi- 
do (military) ideals. The evangelistic note is, 
therefore, lacking in their preaching. The 
moral nobility of the Christian life has ap- 
pealed to them; but they have not entered into 
the true spirit of Christianity as a gospel of 
repentance, faith, and reconciliation as a 
means to eternal life. The Christianity of 
these pioneers has leaned too far in the direc- 
tion of ethical and practical ideals, to the neg- 
lect of the true evangelistic note. Whether 
the criticism be well founded or not, there is 
no question as to the truly evangelistic ring 
of the sermon preached at Kurashiki by Mr. 
Miyagawa, who belongs to the group of pio- 
neer preachers in the Japanese Churches. 

After service I accepted an invitation to 
spend the night with the mayor of the cit}^, Mr. 
Kimura. His residence was an elegant Japan- 
ese yasliiki, laid out in the style prevailing in 
feudal days; but within we found the atmos- 
phere of Christian devotion. The family was 
large, with not less than ten children, an ex- 



36 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

traordinary number in Japan. The next 
morning I found poached eggs on the table 
for breakfast, besides other dishes that gave 
evidence of some knowledge of American cook- 
ing. Mrs. Kimura's younger brother, she told 
me, had been a student at Yale University. 
After breakfast, which I ate alone in the pres- 
ence of my host, the Bible was brought by Mrs. 
Kimura for family prayers, and also a booklet, 
printed by the Scripture Readers' Union, the 
plan of which they had been following in their 
daily worship. The mayor I found to be a 
man of strength and Christian faith. He was 
a director in local cotton-spinning companies. 
He remarked that the time had come in Japan 
when theories and speculations were no longer 
acceptable from the pulpit; they needed the 
gospel of Christ, which he hoped would be 
preached everywhere. In fact, as a result of 
the new industrial awakening, materialism has 
permeated Japanese society and institutions. 
The prevailing worldliness gave no alarm un- 
til men saw specific forms of evil of which it 
had become the fruitful source. The question 
now is, What will give ascendancy to the spir- 
itual over the material? Buddhism, like some 
forms of Christianity, finds itself too negative 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 37 

as to primal truths to become courageous, 
positive, or vital. The Christian religion is 
confronted with an opportunity parallel to 
that of the eighties, but it is a changed op- 
portunity. Then Christianity was sought as 
a good thing. Now its acceptance is felt by 
many to be a necessity to save the nation. 
Then the acceptance of the Christian religion 
was too often looked upon as a part of the 
general advantage to be obtained by an adop- 
tion of Western civilization. Now there is a 
clearer and more general recognition of the 
unique character of the Christian religion as a 
religion of redemption. Now there is greater 
enthusiasm for the work of saving men by the 
preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. 

V. A Young Man's Prayer Answered after 
His Death. 

Once more, on May 20, I left the main line 
of railway and by a lighter line traveled into 
the mountains to one of the remoter districts. 
Takaya is what the Japanese call a noson — 
namely, an agricultural village. Farmers in 
Japan do not live on their several pieces of 
land, but in village communities. After leav- 
ing the branch line at Nanukaichi, Takaya was 



38 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

reached after half an hour's ride by jinrikisha. 
The rain was coming down in torrents. I was 
hoping for a clear night and a good attend- 
ance, for I had not yet seen an empty seat in 
any of the campaign meetings. The post- 
master, in whose home we were to be enter- 
tained, received us kindly. The official members 
soon called and extended a cordial welcome. 
Our fellow worker for this occasion was Mr. 
Kuwata, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in 
Osaka. Takaya is extremely interesting, be- 
cause the leading men of the village are Chris- 
tians, as well as many of the villagers. A church 
costing two thousand yen has recently been 
built with local funds. There is a bell in the 
cupola which was rung at the church hour, 
after the manner of the temple bells. Though 
the rain was pouring down, about a hundred 
people gathered and listened until after eleven 
o'clock to the gospel messages. 

The story of the founding of this remark- 
able work is one of the most beautiful in the 
annals of Japanese Christianity. A young 
man named Okamoto went from the village to 
Kobe and was baptized there in the Tamon 
Church (Congregational). At the baptismal 
service he fainted, no one knowing why. He 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 39 

returned to his village, prompted by a burn- 
ing desire to bring the knowledge of Christ to 
the valley of which Takaya was the agricultural 
center. He met with stubborn intolerance and 
could gather to himself only the children of 
the street, whom he loved into loyal obedience 
to his own leadership. To the top of a hill 
near the village he resorted daily for prayer. 
Looking over the fields and cottages below, he 
poured out his soul to God for the conversion 
of his people. He attended the Kwansei Ga- 
kuin, where he sat in my classroom and that 
of the other members of the faculty; but little 
did we know of the mighty passion ruling his 
soul. He fell ill and died, and his body was 
carried back to the village and buried in the 
cemetery. His life seemed to take hold of the 
leaders of the village in a peculiar manner. 
First one and then another among those who 
had come in contact with him became a Chris- 
tian, until now Takaya promises to be the first 
Christian village in the empire of Japan. I 
had been seated in the home of the postmas- 
ter but a few minutes when the story of this 
young man's life was related to me bj the offi- 
cial members of the Church. They took a 
pride in the fact that a village lad had sue- 



40 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

cecded in breaking down the traditional preju- 
dices against Christianity and in bringing into 
existence a Christian Church. A surprising 
proportion of the members were persons of ma- 
ture age. Among those who called on us were 
four or five aged women. I asked them how 
old they were when they were converted to 
Christianity. One replied that she was fifty- 
five, another was sixty-one, and a third was 
sixty-two. In the congregation a dozen or 
more women of this age had their Bibles and 
hymn books and were recent recruits to the 
cause of Christ. 

The next morning at five o'clock a kindly 
hospitality provided an early breakfast for us. 
The official members were again there to show 
their appreciation and kindness as the jinriki- 
sha started off for the station. All bowed 
gracefully as our jinrikisha started and 
shouted, "Sayonara!" the Japanese parting 
word, which literally means, "If it must be so." 
As our men ran through the barley fields we 
caught glimpses between the clouds, like visions 
of the eternal, of the blue, unchanging sky. 
But the clouds soon began to beat a retreat; 
patches of light eastward grew in brightness, 
and the sky began to clear overhead. By the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 41 

time we reached the station the valley, with its 
green fields and clusters of cottages, was radi- 
ant in the morning light. The fresh green and 
glints of spring were delightful to our senses; 
but far more bright and cheering were the 
prospects of faith for the Takaya village, long 
under the shadows of a spiritual night. It 
was easy, in truth, under the elation of the 
moment, to imagine the clouds were everywhere 
passing all around the world. 

What a splendid vision stirred the soul of 
young Okamoto — the conversion of the entire 
village to Christ! There are twenty-five thou- 
sand country towns or villages in Japan with 
public schools. The denomination which forms 
these into circuits and establishes among them 
regular preaching services will gain the as- 
cendancy in Japanese national life. Some say: 
"As go the cities, so goes the country." But, 
under modern conditions, the country towns 
have gained in relative importance. It is from 
these that the cities are recruited. My visit to 
this country community only served to deepen 
the conviction I already had that the conquest 
of rural and agricultural Japan for Christ and 
the Church is the supreme obligation of the 
hour in this country. 



42 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

VI. The Close of the Campaign at Okayama. 

Our last appointment was at Okayama on 
May 21, this time at the Methodist preaching 
place. Meetings had been held in this city, 
first in the public hall and afterwards in the 
various denominational preaching places. We 
found rest in the hospitable home of Rev. W. 
A. and Mrs. Wilson, resident missionaries of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. We 
enjoyed a meal with Rev. J. II. and Mrs. Pet- 
tec, of the American Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, who have resided in Okayama for thirty- 
five years. 

At the night services preaching continued 
until eleven o'clock. Rev. T. Kugimiya, now 
preacher in charge of the West Osaka Meth- 
odist Church and one of the group of young 
men years ago in Oita on whom the Holy Spir- 
it was poured out in such great power, was the 
first to speak. The spirit of evangelism is 
strong in him and has been for years. He 
does not believe that true evangelism can be 
realized by forced effort. "If so, it would be 
simply like the campaigns conducted by po- 
litical parties." The last speaker, Rev. G. 
Akazawa, who is in charge of the Methodist 
Church at Kobe, gave a most earnest exhorta- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 43 

tion, after which many made request for 
prayer and signified their intention of becom- 
ing Christians. In my sermon I spoke of the 
instantaneous work of grace so needed now in 
Japan and so lost sight of by our age, the rul- 
ing concept of which is evolution. 

It had been a strenuous week which was now 
brought to a close. Speakers had crossed and 
recrossed one another's paths, following each 
other at the various places where the campaign 
was conducted. By means of posters, hung 
along the highways throughout the prefecture, 
by newspaper reports and notices, and by 
public discourses, the Christian religion had 
been brought to the attention of thousands of 
souls living in that part of Japan. It was a 
time of general sowing of the seed, and the 
harvest will come in due season. The oppor- 
tunity for preaching, especially in the country 
towns, was never so great. The Japanese are 
good listeners, giving to the speakers not only 
respectful but intelligent attention. In fact, 
scarcely in any country can audiences be found 
which have a greater appreciation of a dis- 
cussion of the weighty concerns of life than 
these audiences in Japan, gathered together in 
various places to hear Christian preaching. It 



44 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

is a delight to speak to them. A good point 
made by the speaker will always evoke hearty 
applause, manifested by the clapping of hands. 
One is rarely interrupted, and better protec- 
tion is given to the missionaries in their pub- 
lic discourses by the Japanese authorities than 
was given the early apostles and evangelists 
under the Roman Empire. 

While in Okayama I walked with friends to 
the Koraku-cn, a Celebrated garden near the 
castle of a former da'unio. It was a superb 
specimen of the Japanese landscape gardener's 
art. There were numerous mounds and ever- 
green shrubs rounded into spherical forms. 
Rocks and stones, slabs and lanterns of stones, 
ponds and bridges, walks and summer houses 
were arranged according to conventional de- 
signs. 

At the entrance to the park, among the 
booths and stalls where souvenirs of various de- 
scriptions were sold, a woman was keeping a 
porcelain shop. She showed us vessels ready 
for brush and kiln. She urged us to write on 
these with paints she would supply, promising 
to glaze them for us in the fires. I purchased 
a plate for a few pennies, on which I wrote 
the names of the towns visited, the campaign, 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 45 

and the date. I asked the woman if she could 
burn these into the plate. She declared she 
would do so if we had the patience to wait a lit- 
tle while. She put the vessel into a hot char- 
coal fire, contained in a crude earthen pot, 
then fanned the fire into an intense flame of 
heat and redness. After a while our plate 
was removed. The writing and the cross I had 
drawn had been burned into the very substance 
of the vessel, while the surface had become cov- 
ered over with a vitreous glaze. It was a fit- 
ting little memento to be carried away, a sou- 
venir of the days of intense activity, the im- 
pressions of which had entered too deeply into 
the minds of those who took part in the cam- 
paign ever to fade from their memories in the 
years to come. 

After returning home, numerous letters came 
from the Churches visited expressing in due 
Japanese style appreciation of the services ren- 
dered. One of these may be of general inter- 
est. It bears the signature of Hon. Chimata 
Tateishi, a descendant of Shinran, the founder 
of the largest Buddhist sect in Japan. Mr. 
Tateishi was a member of Parliament for many 
years. Though his reelection would have been 
easy, he chose to take the field as a lay preach- 



46 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

.d now devotes his time to the spread of 
the gospel among his people. As the words of 
appreciation apply to all who visited Tsuyama, 
there is no impropriety in quoting them here: 

vama, May 25, 1914. 

We wish to extend to you our greatest thanks for 
your valuable help at the time cf the religious cam- 
paign throughout the empire. Despite the great dis- 
tance, you were pleased to come to such a remote 
place and help us in the great evangelical movement, 
ore able to see larger audiences in the different 
places than we had expected. We are, therefore, ex- 
pecting to reap a great harvest in the future. We 
ran assure you that every person in this district is 
very much rejoiced to att/ribute all this happy pros- 
pect for the future to the earnest efforts of the preach- 
ers who came here to help us in the great attempt. 
We shall be much obliged if you will spare some of 
your thoughts for us and remember us in the time of 
your prayer. 

Just a line to express to you our sincere apprecia- 
tion of your help. 



CAMPAIGN ON THE NORTHWEST 
COAST OF JAPAN. 

I. A Fervent Meeting for "Ethical 
Culture." 

At the beginning of the National Evangelistic 
Campaign preparatory meetings were held, to 
which the Japanese gave the name of shuyo- 
kwai. Now, the traditional sense of shuyo, a 
term Confucian in origin, is "ethical culture." 
Such a usage scarcely accords with the concep- 
tion of a religious revival in the Christian sense ; 
but the term was not used in the Confucian sense 
by the Japanese Christians. The name was old, 
yet the reality it represented to them was new. 
No persons anywhere are more truly aware of 
the dryness and barrenness of mere ethical cul- 
ture than the Japanese. Nowhere can there be 
found a heartier recognition of the gain to mo- 
rality itself to be derived from a religious re- 
vival nor a better appreciation of the heighten- 
ing of the moral sense with the emotions proper 
to it to be achieved in the fervent experience of 
a vital relation to the true and living God than 
among these Christians formerly trained in Con- 
fucian platitudes. 

(47) 



48 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

Among the shuyokwai which I attended, the 
most inspiring and successful was the meeting 
of pastors and workers held at Takata, in the 
province of Echigo, on the north coast of Ja- 
pan, July 10-12, 1914. It was necessary to 
get out early in the morning in order to catch 
the train leaving Uyeno Park Station, in 
Tokyo. On the street cars in Tokyo tickets 
are sold. I was surprised when the conductor 
handed me a brown ticket instead of a blue 
one, the ordinary color, and charged me only 
half the regular fare. The reason for the half 
charge reflected credit upon the traction com- 
pany responsible for the regulation. Until 
seven o'clock in the morning during the sum- 
mer and eight o'clock in the winter this reduc- 
tion is made for the sake of the poor, for stu- 
dents, and for laborers. 

In the surging crowd at the Uyeno Station, 
amid the confusion of voices and clatter of geta 
(sandals), I noticed the Canadian Methodist 
missionary ladies, in charge of a school in 
Tokyo, preparing to take the train. They 
had accompanying them a good number of stu- 
dents whom they were taking to Karuizawa, a 
summering place in the mountains. In the rush 
of people, like the waves of the sea, each think- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 49 

ing only of himself and his own comfort, these 
ladies were considering their girl students. To 
accommodate themselves to the latter's purses, 
they purchased third-class tickets and rode a 
good part of the day on hard, straight-backed 



A level stretch of country about seventy-five 
miles in length is crossed after leaving Tokyo. 
A most pleasing sight observed along the way 
were the smokestacks of factories rising out of 
green fields in the country districts. Not that 
these added to the charm or interest of the 
landscape. Far from it. The attractive fea- 
tures were the sunshine, the fresh air, and cheer- 
ful prospect enjoyed by the operatives, most 
of whom are women and girls. The location 
of factories in the country districts does not 
solve all problems arising out of factory con- 
ditions ; yet it relieves the operatives of that 
constant moral strain to which they are sub- 
jected in the city and escape from which we 
seek when we pray, "Lead us not into tempta- 
tion." 

Climbing into the mountains through nu- 
merous tunnels, our train passed the watershed 
and thundered down toward the sea on the 
northwest coast. Near Nagano we crossed a 
4 



50 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

beautiful valley in which farmers were at work 
transplanting their rice. The rural scene was 
unlike anything visible in America — first, in 
the almost complete absence of domestic ani- 
mals; secondly, in the presence of women in 
the fields, as many, indeed, as men; and, third- 
ly, in the number of farmers to be seen at one 
glance (about five hundred) from the train 
window — an evidence of the overcrowded con- 
dition of the peasant population. 

I put into my valise an old Puritan writing, 
by John Goodwin, entitled "Pleroma to Pneu- 
matikon; or, A Being Filled with the Spirit." 
Though long-drawn-out and difficult to read, 
like most of the Puritan writings, it was ex- 
ceedingly refreshing in its "opening" of the 
Scripture and even startling in some of its 
affirmations. What has our humanitarian age 
to say of a statement like this : "We are never 
likely to be any great benefactors to the world, 
which we yet stand bound in duty to be, unless 
we be filled with the Holy Spirit?" Who can 
withhold hearty assent when he continues 
as follows : "For there is nothing lies within 
the sphere of human activity of more worthy 
or higher accommodation or concernment unto 
the world than to present it with a clear vision 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 51 

of the sight of a man believing with his whole 
heart in Jesus Christ, or else to show unto men 
the sight of the world itself conquered and 
overcome by a man. With both these sights 
every such man or woman presenteth the world 
who telleth the world with authority and power 
— that is, by a manifest contempt of the world 
in all that it can do for him or against him — 
that he believeth in Jesus Christ. There is not 
a greater sight to be shown or seen in the 
world than to show it plainly and cause it to 
see distinctly the heart of a throughout be- 
liever in Christ, or to show it in like manner 
the world overcome by a weak and mortal man." 
It would be well to hang this statement upon 
the walls of every social settlement in Christen- 
dom, so prone are we in social work to drift 
into mere humanitarianism. Other striking 
statements are sprinkled through the pages of 
this interesting volume. For example, the fol- 
lowing : "The damnation of the gospel is a thou- 
sand times more dreadful than that of the law ;" 
"Excellent things for God no one can do unless 
he be filled with the Spirit ;" "Forsaking God is 
the most monstrous thing in the universe;" 
"The ministry of the gospel in the world is like 
the sun in the firmament ;" "A mark of being 



52 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

filled with the Spirit is when a man's spirit rises 
and falls according to the true exigency of the 

affairs of Jesus Christ and of the real benefit of 
man." Or take this opening sentence of the ded- 
ication: "There is a great ambition in the sons 
of men after fullness, and so there is in the sons 
of God also; but the fullness which the sons of 
the latter and better denomination do most 
mind and of another nature and kind 

than that which the sons of the other and lower 
denomination are ambitious of." This should 
be coupled with his statement that "if men be 
not filled, or in a way of being filled, with the 
Spirit of God, tiny will be filled with some evil 
spirit, one or the other." 

Goodwin was profitable reading as a prep- 
aration for the shuyokzeai, the meeting togeth- 
er of pastors and workers ; for the discussion 
of work too often receives such emphasis as to 
throw into the background the primary mat- 
ter, the "greater sight" of showing to the 
world plainly and causing it to see distinctly a 
"throughout" belief in Christ, to show it the 
"world overcome by weak and mortal men." 

Takata is near the northwest coast on the 
Sea of Japan. It is the first city in this coun- 
try I have seen with sidewalks, and these are 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 53 

roofed over. Snow falls in great quantities, 
filling the streets to a level with the second- 
story windows. It is not driven into hollows 
by the wind, but accumulates. One can easily 
imagine that he sees at work here the processes 
by which the glacial age was brought about. 
Rev. D. Norman, who is so efficient as to be 
invited to serve as presiding elder in the Japan 
Methodist Church, conducted me to a hotel, 
where I found as my roommate Rev. E. C. Hen- 
nigar, of the Canadian Methodist Mission, who 
is stationed at Toyama. In conversation with 
him I learned that the population of Toyama 
was sixty thousand and of the prefecture eight 
hundred thousand. In Toyama there are 
street cars, electric lights, and modern facto- 
ries. With the exception of two ladies in the 
city in which he lives, he is the only mission- 
ary in the province. Light railways, now be- 
ing constructed everywhere in Japan, run into 
the interior of the prefecture, rendering many 
places easy of access. There are thirty-two 
towns with mayoralties in Toyama Prefecture 
having a population of from four thousand to 
forty thousand. The working out of mission 
comity may be seen by the division of this field 
between the Canadian Methodists and Presby- 



54 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

terians, the former having five of the counties 
as their field and the latter three. 

These preparatory meetings, for the most 
part, have been interdenominational. This par- 
ticular one wa8 under the direction of Meth- 
odist pastors on the west and north coast of 
Japan. Mr. B. F. Buxton, of the Church of 
England, had been invited as a speaker. He 
is a Layman of Quaker descent and is connected 
with one of the leading families of England. 
He has inaugurated a work in Japan somewhat 
on Keswick lines, to which lie has contributed 
his energies and considerable sums of money. 
The Japan Evangelistic Band, of the Executive 
Council of which he is chairman and of which 
Mr. Paget Wilkes is the most active leader, is 
interdenominational and announces as its teach- 
ing: "(1) A new birth from above of the Holy 
Ghost, received through the forgiveness of sins 
on the ground of atonement by faith; (2) that 
the Bible is the inspired Word of God from 
cover to cover; (3) a full salvation and sepa- 
ration unto God, a true union with him through 
faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
(4) the unity of all true believers in Christ." 

"We emphasize," the statement goes on to 
say, "heart-cleansing, the baptism of the Holy 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 55 

Ghost, and a life of continuous victory over 
sin through the indwelling Christ in the heart." 
Further, "the work being interdenominational, 
the mission does not establish a Church or sect 
of its own." 

Thus at Takata divergent streams strangely 
met, all of which had their source in the Wes- 
leyan revival in the eighteenth century — the 
evangelical movement within the Church of 
England, represented by Mr. Buxton, besides 
Canadian Methodism, American Methodism, 
and Japanese Methodism. No one who wit- 
nessed during the successive services the one- 
ness of spirit and aim, the superior accent 
placed on subjective experience, the conviction 
expressed that attainment now was possible 
of a living consciousness of possessing God 
through faith in Christ could question the reali- 
ty of the common inheritance. Men were moved 
in their inmost souls, especially the Japanese 
preachers, as they prayed earnestly and affec- 
tionately for the conversion of their own peo- 
ple. No one would deny that by means of prac- 
tical instruction, by the slow and patient proc- 
ess of ethical discipline (shuyo) 9 by the grad- 
ual contemplation of the ideal, a certain meas- 
ure of progress can be obtained. A love for 



56 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

souls might thus be awakened, yet scarcely an 

ardent lo se of the importance of truth, 

though not of its unutterable importance; a 

re for moral excellency and heavenly pu- 

though not a g after it; a dislike 

in, but not a loathing of it; a recognition 

of the goodness of God, I a knowledge of 

intense hours under 

' and in prayer and 

by means of a realizing faith attainments are 

sible which no Confucian or stoic discipline 

can 

In the shuyokwai at Takata the lines met, as 
we have said, representing Christian history pri- 
marily as an experience. There was a resident 

-nary at that place, however, whose cour- 
teous hospitality we enjoyed, the Rev. C. H. 
Shortt, of the Episcopal Church in Canada, 
who stood for a different tradition. Refined 
and scholarly in his tastes, living all alone in 
consecration to his task, possessing a choice 
library, Mr. Shortt belongs to that school to 
the adherents of which Christian history is also 
vastly important as an ecclesiastical institu- 
tion. Looking down upon him from the walls 
of the rooms in which he spends his hours in 
solitude, I noticed portraits of the Pope of 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 57 

Rome, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, 
Bishop Nicolai, late of the Russian Holy Ortho- 
dox Church, of Tokyo, Bishop Cecil, of the 
Church of England, Tokyo, and Bishop An- 
drews, of the Canadian Episcopal Church, Na- 
goya. Ignatius said in the second century: 
"Do nothing without the bishop." This view 
has become deeply imbedded in Christian tra- 
dition. 

At the last service of the shuyoJcwai many 
tender and parting words were exchanged as 
the workers were taking leave for their several 
stations. When Bibles were presented to the 
speakers for their autographs, I felt a sense 
of restraint ; but the insistence was earnest and 
genuine, so I wrote my name, as did others, in 
a number of Bibles, always adding these words : 
"Present salvation." 

Sunday night an appointment was arranged 
for me at Arai, the first station this side of 
Takata. A good supper had been prepared at 
the pastor's home, in the front room of which 
meetings were held. An aged farmer, who was 
also a Shinto priest, had been invited in, and 
he sat with me and the pastor, Brother Hase- 
gawa, at the table, while the wife served the 



58 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

dinner. The oki man had a hedgerow of beard 
reaching under his chin from one side of his 
face to the other. His hair was roached back 
on his forehead. Out of his eyes there seemed 
to look the mysteries of the past in Japan, its 
superstitions, fox ; is, and phantoms of 

a clouded spiritual night. When I asked him 
about the gods of Shintoism, he replied: ''From 
the time of Jinmiu Tenno ((HH) B.C.) the new 
gods have all been men." lie might have added 
that General Nogi was the last in the list. The 
national consciousness in Japan is as favorable 
to deification as it was averse to the exaltation 
of the creature among the Jews. 

After supper the front room began to fill 
for the service, which had been advertised. The 
pastor was very tactful in handling the noisy 
children who had flocked in from the street, 
excited by their curiosity to see a foreigner. A 
stand was brought in, on which were laid a Bible 
and a hymn book. To my astonishment, when 
I stood up to preach here in this wayside place, 
I saw before me a reporter sitting on the floor 
with his arms spread out on a low table, such 
as is used in Japanese houses. He was, with 
pen in hand, ready to take down my sermon ! 
Leaving by a night train, I found myself the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 59 

next day at my desk in Tokyo, thankful for the 
days of blessing and opportunities spent on this 
trip. 

II. A Second Visit to the Northwest Coast. 

On October 16 I rose at 4:30 a.m. and 
started in a jinrikisha across the city of Tokyo 
for Uyeno Station. The sky was flushed with 
a promise of the morning, though the people 
had not begun to move in the street. I was 
starting upon a journey to the Province of 
Echigo, where a number of appointments had 
been made in connection with the campaign. 

I had put in my valise two or three volumes 
to read on the way, among which was an old 
book, entitled "The Great Awakening," in 
which there was an account, written more than 
half a century ago, of the great revival in Amer- 
ica, which began with Whitefield and Edwards. 

In New England the distinction between 
nominal and real Christianity had been lost. 
Needless to say, we could make nothing of such 
a distinction in our preaching in Japan. Those 
who listened to us had lost the form and what- 
ever power these had over their lives of the 
religions they once professed. Our task was 
a twofold one. We were seeking to restore re- 



60 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

ligion to its legitimate place in heart and life 

and at the same time to convince the people 
that a better religion was within their reach 
than the faiths they onee held. 

Nevertheless, the reading of "The Great 
Awakening" was very profitable. This forgot- 
ten volume contains much that we of to-day 
might well take to heart. The Nottingham 
sermon was a notable utterance, and the preach- 
ing of it became the occasion of intense con- 
troversy. Tennant, the preacher, who was a 
friend of Whitefield, sought to show that there 
was great harm to the cause in an "uncon- 
verted ministry." He thought the temptation 
was ea^v to preachers to be satisfied with them- 
selves if they wire neither heretical in their 
preaching of doctrine nor openly immoral in 
their practical life. 

What room is there, indeed, between these two 
extremes for such unholy tempers as worldliness, 
pride, envy, hypocrisy, censoriousness, deceit, 
ingratitude, levity, ambition, idleness, indiffer- 
ence, and like tempers, not one of which is of 
such a nature as to arrest public attention or 
to bring upon the man of God the reproach that 
either scandalous conduct or heretical teach- 
ing would draw upon his head ; yet these un- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 61 

holy tempers tend to limit his influence for 
good, lower his spiritual efficiency, and defeat 
the very purpose for which the ministry was 
chosen by him. Such tempers have the effect 
of interfering with communion with Christ and 
of smothering spiritual desires and aspirations 
which are vital to a successful Christian life 
and ministry. 

The journey across the mountain ranges 
which form the backbone of the Japanese 
Islands was delightful. On the hills, now be- 
ginning to turn to golden, brown, and russet 
tints, the maple, the lacquer, and the azalea 
glowed in patches of bright color, as crimson 
as the flush on the sky when I left home that 
morning. One pleasing, though unusual, sight 
in Japan was the presence of a herd of cattle 
grazing on the side of a mountain. Vast 
stretches of pasture land, it would seem, could 
be developed in the hill districts of this coun- 
try. The train passed around the base of the 
great Asama, the Vesuvius of Japan. A col- 
umn of white steam came out of the grim and 
forbidding crater and rose high into the 
heavens, forming a magnificent spectacle. In 
the late spring, when I passed this way, the 
farmers in the great valley adjacent to Nagano 



62 Campaigning for Japan* 

planting their rice. Now the fields were 
golden, and the harvest was just beginning. 

My first appointment was at Nagaoka, at 
which place I arrived at 8:10 p.m., after an all- 
day journey. Miss Kawai, who had preceded 
ns. made the first address, and I followed, be- 
ginning at nine o'clock. After service I was 
entertained in an elegant hotel, the proprietor 
of which was a Christian (Episcopalian). The 
church was mar by, and he manifested interest 
in its progri ss. Besides the Church of which 
he was a member, there were other Christian 
organizations in the place — a Presbyterian con- 
it ion and a preaching place conducted by 
the Oriental Mission (Holiness). 

The register is brought to your room in a 
Japanese hotel, and you are supposed to put 
down the following facts, for which blank col- 
umns have been made: (1) Where you lodged 
the night before. (2) Where you intend to go 
on the following day. (3) Your rank (lord, 
retainer, or commoner). (4) Your occupation. 
(5) Your place of residence. (6) Your age. 

Mr. Kaibo, my host, said that the Shinshiu 
Buddhists were strong throughout that region, 
though very superstitious. They did not seem 
to mind the corruption at the head temple in 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 63 

Kyoto, the exposure of which had recently 
filled the Japanese newspapers and shocked the 
public. When leading priests came to that 
city and rode through the streets, the people 
threw paper money into their laps. I re- 
marked that this was probably due to their 
superstitious ideas. "Not superstition," he re- 
plied, "but selfishness." They think the dol- 
lars thus bestowed will return to them a hun- 
dredfold in the form of dollars. Shinshiu is 
the Buddhist sect which teaches the doctrine 
of salvation by faith. According to traditional 
Buddhism, salvation is by works, by the ob- 
servance of moral precepts, and the practice 
of self-mastery. But the so-called "difficult 
path," the path of ascetic austerities, was set 
aside by the Shinshiuists, who adopted an "easy 
path," the path of salvation by faith. It is not 
improbable that Shinshiu Buddhism is an aber- 
rant form of Christian teaching, just as is the 
Mohammedan religion. But the Shinshiu sect 
is antinomian. Salvation in Buddhism is sal- 
vation from passion; but the Shinshiuists give 
place for the indulgence of the passions. They 
have taken up the worship of Amitabha, the 
meaning of which term is "infinite light," as 
explained by them. It was a teaching similar 



64 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

to that of the Shinshiuists and probably em- 
anating from the same source that John had 
in mind when he said: "God is light, and in him 
is no darkness at all. If we say that we have 
fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, 
and do not the truth." Commanding a third 
of the Buddhists of Japan as its own follow- 
the Shinshiu sect, with the prestige of his- 
tory and of great temples of national fame to 
its advantage, is now a reproach to religion, 
owing to the corruption of the leaders and the 
neglect of the people adhering to the sect, 
Lightfoot, in his celebrated essay on the Oolos- 
sian heresy, remarks that a religion which de- 
preciates the flesh as being evil in itself will 
swing back and forth in practical life from the 
extreme of rigorous asceticism to the extreme 
of sensual indulgence. His remark finds an il- 
lustration in the sects of Buddhism, which have 
adopted now a '"difficult" and now an "easy" 
path of salvation. 

III. All Things Lost and the Best Thing 

Gained. 

Early the next morning Miss Kawai, who is 
Secretary of the Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation in Tokyo, joined me on the train, and 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 65 

we proceeded toward Niigata. Her conversion 
to Christianity is as interesting as any romance 
ever written. Her father was a Shinto priest 
at the Sacred Shrines of Ise, the ancestral 
shrines of the Imperial House of Japan, the 
Mecca to which loyal Japanese for centuries 
have made pilgrimages. The family in which 
she was born was one of the four original 
priestly families of the Japanese Empire, be- 
longing to a line reaching back to the very 
dawn of Japanese history. 

Her father committed his business affairs to 
a steward, who proved to be an unjust steward 
who "wasted his gains." The troubles of the 
family increased as a consequence. "My fa- 
ther," said Miss Kawai, "when I was a small 
girl, went to the shrines and prayed at twi- 
light." He chose that hour in order to avoid 
the crowd which came daily to offer worship. 
Alone before his gods, before Ameterasu, in the 
twilight of his religious faith, he poured out his 
soul and sought relief from his troubles. The 
family finally decided to go to some distant 
place, where their shame and humiliation could 
be hidden. Her father held the shosi rank, and 
it was a great reproach, he felt, thus to be re- 
duced to poverty. 
5 



66 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

They decided upon Hokkaido; and the family 
migrated northward and settled in the wilder- 
ness, enduring thereby still greater hardships, 
for they had do experience in the work of mak- 
ing a living. But here they came into contact 
with Christians, in consequence of which .Miss 
Kawai was led into the faith. "It was a mar- 
velous work of God," she said to me on the 
train, "how we came to know Jesus." These 
wire the very words .she used. She continued 
to tell the story of her conversion and re- 

marked: "Mother says it is good to lose all 
things if we gain thereby the best tiling." By 
her conversation it was perfectly apparent that 

she counted all things loss for the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ she had gained. She 
firmly believed that they were extricated from 
the age-long and sacred traditions entwined 
about their lives by the kindly hand of a guid- 
ing Providence. Indeed, a miracle of grace 
was wrought here as truly as in the conversion 
of the young Pharisee on the road to Damascus, 
whose life was encompassed about at Jerusalem 
by family and ecclesiastical relations from 
which nothing short of a divine interference 
could have set him free. 

I thought I could discover in Miss Kawai's 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 67 

account of their conversion as a result of their 
strange migration to Hokkaido, where they 
were thrown with Dr. and Mrs. Nitobe and oth- 
er Christians, a truer insight into the ways of 
Providence than is found among the converts 
who were, prior to becoming Christians, either 
Buddhists or Confucianists. Shintoism does 
not possess a comprehensive view of the uni- 
verse, as do Buddhism and Confucianism. It is 
a rudimentary religion holding to a primitive 
mythology and polytheism and confused with 
various and sometimes degrading superstitions ; 
yet the simple instincts of religion have been 
preserved by Shintoism — faith, prayer, and 
worship, for example — in greater vitality than 
under the systems more developed in the intel- 
lectual expression of religion and philosophy. 
In Buddhism — that is, of the intelligent few — 
prayer is mental concentration, while in Con- 
fucianism prayer is the soul's sincere desire. 
In both alike the true conception of prayer has 
been lost. Miss Kawai, now a member of the 
Presbyterian Church and a leader among the 
Christian women of Japan, interprets her de- 
liverance from primitive traditions into the lib- 
erty of the gospel as a particular manifesta- 
tion of the gracious providence of God. Who 



68 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

knows but that the twilight prayer, ottered by 
her father at the shrin< . tiered by Him 

before whom all hearts are open and no dc 
are hid. I like to think that we find in these 
promptings of a childhood and instinctive faith, 
in these faint . of religious truth, signs 

of t! verywhere present, immanent in 

law and custom, language, and impulse, the 
Light that lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world. I like to think of Him as being the 
Source of every impulse toward the truth, 
of every inclination toward philosophy, though 
philosophic t 'linking may often be beside the 
mark and fail to r bhe truth of God — 

fail not only through Incapacity to use the 
mind aright, like a man who cannot guide the 
motions of his limbs as he wishes, but also 
through moral disability, through the evil per- 
vading society and affecting the heart of man, 
against which the wrath of heaven has been re- 
vealed, against all who hold down the truth in 
unrighteousness. 

IV. The Church in the Country Town. 

I left the main line at Niitsu for Shibata, 
where an afternoon appointment had been ar- 
ranged for me on short notice. The great oil 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 69 

wells were visible from Niitsu ; and between this 
place and Shibata I passed through level fields 
of rice, the most of which had been harvested 
and hung up on a framework constructed of 
poles and tied together with ropes. It is curi- 
ous that so many different reasons will be given 
to one in explanation of local customs. One 
said that the rice, put up in shocks elsewhere, 
was suspended on poles, head downward, in this 
vicinity, owing to the dampness of the soil. An- 
other said that it was due to the dampness in 
the atmosphere, while another explained that 
this enabled the farmers to cut their rice earlier. 
It ripened after it was suspended in the sun- 
light. 

Shibata is a quiet country town, with a num- 
ber of schools and a military garrison. The 
pastor, Rev. K. Kokita (Congregationalist), 
was in the famous battle of the Japan Sea when 
Togo destroyed the Russian squadron. His 
wife is a graduate of the Uyeno Conservatory 
of Music and is the organist of the church. 
Though the notice was only given out in the 
morning, a good congregation gathered at one 
o'clock in the afternoon, and I spoke to them 
of the wonderful beginning and future history 
and influence of the Church at Thessalonica. I 



TO Campai in Japan, 

sought to encourage them by showing the in- 
fluence of congregations in remote places in the 
nenil kingdom of Christ. I 
, the fact that, from Thessalonica north- 
ward, the gospel was spread into regions in 
Central Europe, from which Russian Chris- 
tianity took its rise among the Slavonic people, 
and from which the fires of the Reformation 
were kindled, and from which the Methodist 
movement lit its torch. Consequently the influ- 
ence of a tion was not to be measured 
by its geographical location, but by whether or 
not it was a Church "in God the Father and in 
the Lord Jesus Christ." 

I walked with the pastor through the streets 
of the town. He was visiting members, inviting 
them and others to the preaching. While wait- 
ing for him on one of the streets I entered a 
curio store. There were coats of mail, hal- 
berds, swords, porcelain and lacquer wares, and 
numerous other relics of the old Japan. What 
interested me was a Buddhist rosary, a string of 
beads which the dealer claimed was two hundred 
years old. The heads were carved of milk-white 
and tawny agate and had been worn smooth 
through long use by the priests in mumbling 
their "vain repetitions." I held them up to the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 71 

light, and their glow in the rajs of the sun was 
like the fires of the eternal city. In fact, the 
stones mentioned by John were, I believe, va- 
rieties of the agate such as we find here in 
Japan. The curio dealer asked a ridiculously 
small price for the beads. He had another 
rosary, made of the brown Nepaul nut, and 
these went well with the agates. John said that 
such stones adorned the bride, the new Jerusa- 
lem, the Church, coming down out of heaven 
from God. What better souvenir, then, than 
these to take with me to Tokyo as a gift for 
the golden birthday, just two days off, of the 
one who at my side for more than a quarter of 
a century of missionary service had borne with 
me the burdens and shared the hopes and joys 
of the vocation to which we had been called? 

V. Conservative Niigata Beginning to 
Change. 

Returning to Niitsu, I took a train on the 
main line in time to reach Niigata for the eve- 
ning services. The local pastors were kind 
enough to meet us at the train and show us the 
way to the residence of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. 
Olds. The two mission residences here are in 
adjoining yards, one of which is occupied by 



72 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

Miss Edith Curtiss and the other by Mr. and 

Mrs. Olds. The service was held in the evening 
at the Presbyterian church, the Episcopalian, 
Congregationalist, and Presbyterian pastors 
joining together in the service. Miss Kawai 
the first and her talk was deeply 

spiritual practical. The building was 

crowded to the utmost capacity. Mats were 
brought in and spread on the floor before the 
pulpit, on which those were seated who could 
not find room in the pews. The gallery was 
filled, and the stairway to the gallery, and faces 
were at the windows on the outside. No such 
gathering as this had been witnessed before in 
Lta, so conservative was the city. The at- 
tention was good, and there was much power 
and assurance in the preaching of the Word. 

After the service four young men came for- 
ward who Mere in attendance upon the lectures 
at the medical college at that place. Two of 
them had chosen the name of Paul, in addition 
to their own names, and two of them the name 
of Luke. I learned from them that a thousand 
3-oung men applied for admission into the medi- 
cal college, and only two hundred had been ac- 
cepted. Two 3'oung men, also students, sat at 
a table, taking down our addresses, which, the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 73 

pastor said, were to be printed and distributed 
in the community in order to reach those who 
would not attend the public services. 

On Sunday afternoon a theater, rented for 
the purpose, was the place at which the Chris- 
tians rallied, together with those who came in 
to hear the sermons. Beginning at one o'clock, 
Dr. H. Kosaki, pastor of the Reinansaka Con- 
gregational Church, of Tokyo, was the first 
speaker. He related the story of his conver- 
sion to Christianity at Kumamoto. He was one 
of the noted Kumamoto band, led to Christ by 
Captain Janes. A school at Kumamoto in the 
early days requested Dr. Verbeck to send them 
a teacher, and they preferred a Samurai. Dr. 
Verbeck informed them that there was no Samu- 
rai class in America, but that he would do the 
best he could. He sent them an American army 
officer, who led to Christ a number of young 
men whose names afterwards became familiar 
to the nation as leaders of the Christian cause. 

I followed Dr. Kosaki and spoke for forty 
minutes. The last address was given by Bishop 
Y. Hiraiwa, the present Bishop of the Japan 
Methodist Church, a powerful preacher who 
presents with great clearness the truths of the 
Christian religion, of which he has a firm grasp. 



~ -h Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

op Hiraiwa dwelt upon the significance of 
the ( in the educational 

policy ol the government — a change which im- 

I that the officials \ b to assume a 

different attitude toward religion. The origi- 
nal policy, adopted by Japan in imitation of 
. involved neutrality to- 
ward all religions. Education was secularized; 
but recently the Bureau of Religions had been 
changed from the Home Department to the 
Departmi lucation. The Bishop's in- 

terpretation of this chan that it implied 

a recognition on the part of the government 
that educ - seriously deficient if it did 

not take into consideration the strengthening 
and purifying of the religious nature. 

A short time ago I was journeying with Bish- 
op Hiraiwa through the Kofu Valley, a central 
mountain district through which a railroad had 
been constructed at great cost. After leaving 
Tokyo we passed through forty-nine tunnels, 
one of which had been blasted two miles and a 
half in length through a granite mountain. 
Bishop Hiraiwa related to me the story of the 
opening of Christian work in that remote region. 
He walked from Tokyo to Kofu, a journey of 
four days, and preached the gospel in that city. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 75 

Now, there were three self-supporting Churches 
in and about Kofu, a prosperous girls' school 
under Methodist auspices, and a preaching place 
in every village in the province. We were now 
riding through on a good railway train.- When 
preachers went on foot — not, as now, in palace 
cars — the saying was very fitting: "How beau- 
tiful upon the mountains are the feet of him 
who bringeth good tidings !" 

At night, meetings were held in three 
churches. Bishop Hiraiwa preached in the 
Presbyterian church, Dr. Kosaki preached in 
the Episcopalian church, and I was assigned to 
preach in the Congregational church. The 
rain was coming down, and the congregations 
were small. 

On Monday I returned to Tokyo and had as 
my traveling companions Miss Kawai and Dr. 
Sasao, the latter Dean of the Theological De- 
partment of the Tohoku Gakuin (Reformed 
Church of the United States). At Takasaki 
we purchased lunch boxes, and I was compelled 
to eat with chopsticks, somewhat to the amuse- 
ment of the other passengers. The lunch, 
which cost twenty-five sen, was put up in two 
boxes, one of which contained rice and the oth- 
er of which was supplied with the following: 



76 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

Eggs and bean curd (mixed) ; small pieces of 
heel" (stewed); fried eel; mushrooms ; bamboo 
root; burdock rout; lotus root; ginger root; 
caladium root ; daikon, or "great roof (a large 
radish). 

It will be Been that the greater part of the 
foods supplied grew underground. With the 
lunch bos napkin, bamboo toothpicks, 

and chopsticks were supplied. We also bought 
a pot of tea, with the cup thrown in, for four 
sen, or two cents in American money. We 
reached home at 9:40 P.M., wearied from the 
long journev. 



CAMPAIGN AT SHIDZUOKA, HAMA- 
MATSU, AND KEGA. 

I. On the Shores of the Great Ocean. 

Besides the shuyokwai which I attended at 
Shidzuoka, a great tea-shipping port and one 
of the most successful fields of the Canadian 
Methodist Mission, I took part in campaigns 
along this coast at Hamamatsu and Kega. On 
September 28 I left the Shimbashi station in 
Tokyo at 7 :40 a.m. for the Mamamatsu cam- 
paign. The equinoctial storms were over. Ap- 
parently the autumn weather, so delightful in 
Japan, had set in. It is at this time of the 
year, during these days of flawless purity, that 
much touring is done by Christian missionaries 
and pastors. 

On the train I met Rev. Dr. Ebina, pas- 
tor of the Hongo Congregational Church in 
Tokyo, and the Honorable S. Ebara, member 
of the House of Lords and Methodist layman, 
who were to be fellow workers in the campaign 
at Hamamatsu. Dr. Ebina has been in the 
pastorate for thirty years and is also the edi- 
tor of a monthly magazine. He is looked upon 
as the most eloquent and forceful speaker 

(77) 



78 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

among the Japanese Christians. Mr. Ebara is 
a venerable sti . now Beventy-three years 

of age, and is one of the most highly respected 
and honored men of the empire. After a long 
service in the Lower House, lie was made a peer 

and Is still active in polities and in many other 
spheres of national life. 

On this journey our train passed around the 
base of Mount Fuji. Hokusai, the celebrated 
artist of Japan, executed a picture book, the 
title of which is "Fuji Hyakkei; or, A Hun- 
dred Views of Fuji." The mountain is depicted 
by him from various points of view. We were 
favored on this particular day with one of the 
numerous superb views that may be had of this 
peerless mountain. It would be more correct 
to portray a thousand views than a hundred 
views of Fuji. One of the marvels of nature is 
its versatility. Nature to the poet, says the 
Buddhist, is many and to the philosopher is 
one. Hence, he concludes, the poetic view is 
false. But the fact that "one star differeth 
from another star in glory" is an intimation of 
the wealth of the fundamental Reality. God is 
not a blank, such as the pantheists would make 
him out to be by their abstractions. Better, 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 79 

with Thomson, to see in the changing seasons 
manifestations of the "varied God." 

I had seen Mount Fuji on many occasions, 
once as a phantom in the night, blanketed with 
snow, as vague and spectral and solitary as a 
landscape in the moon; once at sunset from 
our home in Tokyo, when the sun dropped 
down directly behind the mountain, giving Fuji 
once more the appearance of a volcano, down 
the slopes of which could be seen running mol- 
ten lava, like a torrent of fire. Now from the 
train window the great peak stood out clearly 
marked against the sky. A single wreath of 
white, fluffy, silken cloud lay about the moun- 
tain like a sash hung loosely around the body 
of a young girl. The picture was one of deli- 
cate and exquisite beauty. Above the cloud the 
summit rose proudly in the surrounding atmos- 
phere; while the lower part of the mountain 
seemed draped with a gorgeous skirt, orna- 
mented with figures of forests and green fields 
just beginning to be tinged with gold. It was 
a new view of Fuji, possibly one of the hyakkei, 
or "hundred views." 

After a rest at Hamamatsu, which we reached 
at two in the afternoon, at the home of Rev. H. 
E. Walker, of the Canadian Methodist Mission, 



80 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

I started for Kega by jinrikisha, a ride of two 

hours through fields of rice, tea, tobacco, mul- 
berry trees (the leaves of which are for silk- 
worms), and other products of the farm. We 
passed a military garrison and schoolhouses, 
public schools and technical schools. On the 
wav the scarlet equinoctial flower (higanbana) 
attracted attention by its contrast with the au- 
tumn brown-. The Japanese dislike this flow- 
er. They condemn it because it grows in ceme- 
teries, a point which would seem to be in its 
favor, suggesting the resurrection. 

Dr. Ebina went immediately by boat from 
Hamamatsu and reached Kega before my ar- 
rival. We were entertained together at a quiet 
Japanese Christian home. The meeting was 
held in the public theater, and at night we found 
about five hundred gathered to hear the Chris- 
tian addresses, most of the number, as in Jap- 
anese audiences usually, being men. In spite of 
our surroundings, the impressions made seemed 
to be solemn and effective. I spoke of the "Per- 
fect Life" and pointed out that the Christian 
religion sought to produce sound, healthful, ro- 
bust men, qualified by the spiritual life for all 
legitimate callings here, as well as for citizen- 
ship in the kingdom of the future world. In a 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 81 

land long influenced by Buddhism, a religion 
"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," 
such a message, I believed, would be pertinent. 
It was, in truth, a reaction from the monastic 
ideal that gave point to the Wesleyan doctrine 
of Christian perfection. Any one reading 
Law's "Serious Call," the book that influenced 
Wesley, will find Christian perfection in every- 
day life set over against the Roman Catholic 
ideal of perfection, characterized by voluntary 
poverty, celibacy, and obedience. In other 
words, the Roman Catholics, like the Buddhists, 
thought that the perfect life could not be lived 
except by those who had surrendered the ordi- 
nary life. This phase of Wesley's teaching was 
never taken into consideration by later genera- 
tions. Christian perfection, seen from this 
point of view, was very practical and was a re- 
covery of the Church's true teaching as regards 
the possibility of spiritual living in the present 
life and under ordinary social conditions. 

Dr. Ebina's views have undergone a change in 
the course of years since he entered the Chris- 
tian ministry. He at one time appeared on the 
platform always in Japanese garb. He was an 
intense nationalist. He thought that he was 
able to find Christianity implicit in the national 
6 



82 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

mythology of Shintoism. Now he wears Eu- 
ropean dress. He is an eloquent exponent of 
the universalism in Christianity. He sees that 
the mythology and polytheism of Japan are not 
only no longer useful, but have become injuri- 
ous to the nation. They are an impediment, 
interfering with the free intercourse of Japan 
with enlightened nations. The tribal conscious- 
ness and local affections of the Japanese 
people must yield to the spiritual universal- 
ism in the religion of Christ before Japan can 
hope to reach the highest plane of national 
living. 

In Dr. Ebina's address at Kega there was 
one point full of dramatic power. It was when 
he touched upon the loyalty of Christians to 
their God, which to many in the audience was 
an unjustifiable renunciation of their duty to 
Japan, and especially to their ancestors. "I 
would stand by the grave of my ancestors," 
said Dr. Ebina, "and declare to them that I no 
longer worshiped the deities they worshiped, 
but that my devotion was to the true and living 
God, who made the heavens and the earth ; and 
I believe that if they could speak to me from 
beyond the grave their words would be full of 
commendation and approval and that they 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 83 

would declare, from the point of view they oc- 
cupy with the fuller knowledge which they no 
doubt enjoy, that we in our devotion to the 
true and living God were right !" 

The solemnity and impressiveness of Dr. 
Ebina's address was somewhat marred at the 
close by the appearance on the platform of a 
crazy man, who began to utter incoherent sen- 
tences in an attempt to make a speech. The 
crowd soon retired from the building, and only 
a few remained to hear what the self-commis- 
sioned speaker had to say. 

After returning to the Japanese home where 
we were being entertained, a bowl of rice, with 
fried eels dipped in slioyu (sauce) and laid on 
the rice, was brought to me. I had eaten an 
early supper before leaving Hamamatsu. Be- 
fore going to the night meeting the discussion 
had turned on the kabayake in Tokyo, a dish 
mentioned by Dr. Ebina as being relished by 
the Tokyo people. I remarked that I was very 
fond of the Tokyo Jcabayake. I did not know 
then that Kega was famous for its eels. After 
the meeting, this delicious feast was brought 
in as an expression of the genuine hospitality 
the Japanese Christians desired to show to 
us. 



8-i Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

The next morning, before leaving, autograph 
albums were brought in, beautiful volumes 
bound in stiff board binding, covered with bro- 
caded silk. I declined to write in these beauti- 
ful books with an instrument so mechanical as 
our steel pen. The J write with a brush, 

and calligraphy with them is a fine art. It 
seemed out of all propriety to put clown in a 
book filled with classic passages, written with a 
Japanese brush, the scrawling sentences which 
I write with a foreign pen. The friends, how- 

. insisted thai it would be all right, so I de- 
cided to leave a testimony for those who looked 

. upon the great Pacific Ocean. In one 
album I wrote: 

"There's a wideness in God's mercy- 
Like the wideness of the sea." 

In another I wrote this sentence: "My heart's 
desire and prayer to God is that Japan might be 
saved." In a third album (some of these were 
brought in by the neighbors) I left Augustine's 
great statement as a testimony : "The human 
heart was made for God, and God alone can 
satisfy it." 

After kind and hearty words of parting, we 
returned by jinrikisha to Hamamatsu. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 85 

II. The Sabbath the Corner Stone of 
Civilization. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon we addressed 
a meeting of women. A Japanese audience is, 
under all circumstances, very formal. The 
women, if anything, are more formal than the: 
men. Dr. H. Hosald, of Tokyo, gave the first 
address. When he appeared, on being intro- 
duced, the entire audience bowed, the heads of 
the women moving like grain swayed by the 
wind. Dr. Kosaki had to* hurry on to Kega, 
where he was to speak that night. There is 
much discussion in Japan of the question of the 
larger life of womanhood. The old ideals have 
become too narrow for the women of to-day, 
trained in the schools and influenced by Chris- 
tian civilization. But there is much confusion 
of mind as to just what is the nature of the 
larger life a woman should seek to live. In my 
address I chose Frances Willard as a classical 
example of what a woman could do beyond the 
circle of the home. 

At night the meeting was held, as was the 
afternoon meeting for women, within the pre- 
cincts of a Shinto temple, in a public hall used 
for fencing. There was a good turnout of men, 



86 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

and the attention was good. Dr. Ebina was 
again my fellow laborer, and he grew eloquent 
as he spoke of the failure of science in Germany 
and Japan and of the need of spiritual efficiency 

and moral power in these two nations. Ger- 
many and Japan both alike seemed to be found- 
ing their national hopes upon modern science. 
Now both nations were seen to be lacking in the 

spiritual elements which form the higher civili- 
zation. 

It was not without embarrassment that I 
stood before this audience to commend to those 
present a religion professed by nations now en- 
gaged in deadly strife. I made a frank confes- 
sion that those of us who had been called to the 
ministry had not been as faithful in giving our 
testimony to the truth as we should have been. 
I had to acknowledge also that a spirit of 
worldlincss had gained undue prevalence among 
Christian nations. The need, however, was not 
for less of Christianity, but for more of it. I 
believed that the cause of the w T ar in Europe 
was the awakening of the Teutonic and Slavonic 
peoples. The world was witnessing a gigantic 
struggle between vigorous races. In the his- 
tory of the Church, Christianity had gained 
spiritual supremacy over various forms of secu- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 87 

lar power. In the industrial era in modern 
times we had witnessed the conquest of wealth 
by the Christian religion, resulting in the sub- 
ordination of capital to the service of human- 
ity. We might with reasonable faith seek to 
bring racial movements under the dominion of 
Christ. It was a great task, but the tasks un- 
dertaken by faith w T ere never too great for hope. 
The next night the rain was coming down in 
torrents. Mr. Ebara was the honored fellow 
worker with me for this service. The attend- 
ance was cut down owing to the rain. This was 
a matter of regret, for Mr. Ebara gave a most 
practical discourse on the relation between Sab- 
bath observance and the prosperity of a nation. 
This distinguished Christian is noted for his 
simplicity of manner and plainness of living. 
He has declined all titles and has remained satis- 
fied with a modest income. His probity has 
never been doubted, and he is the trusted coun- 
selor of the leading statesmen of the empire. 
His Christian devotion is a matter of great en- 
couragement to those interested in the progress 
of the gospel in Japan.- At ten o'clock that 
evening we boarded the train. Mr. Ebara took 
for his bed the long seat at the side of Japa- 
nese trains and covered himself with a blanket 



88 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

In order to catch a little sleep between this 
ion and tl where lie intended to 

two o'clock that morning. His \ 
More than threescore and ten, and yet ho is 
strenuous in his efforts for the Christian cause. 
luld be found than 
that of Mr. Ebara. He has passed from the 
attainable under the old order to the best 
attainable under Christianity, The prevailing 
ition has not affected him in spir- 
it or in life. His life has been cast in the midst 
of the affairs of the nation. His Christian in- 
bood out in noticeable contrast to 
the skepticism, luxury, corruption, and greed 
for gain characteristic of the period. Such 
men are a light — and there are not a few of 
them — over against a background on which 
many heavy .shadows have fallen. 



CAMPAIGN IN THREE PREFECTURES. 

Hiroshima. 

I. Tribal Consciousness and Consciousness of 

Sonship. 

I was asked by the Committee of the Western 
Section — that is, of the division of Japan 
known as the Kwansei — to take part in the 
campaign planned for three prefectures — name- 
ly, the Hiroshima and Yamaguchi Prefectures, 
on the mainland, and the Ehime Prefecture, on 
the island of Shikoku. The campaign was to 
extend from November 7 to 15. 

Before the time came for me to depart for 
the campaign, letters began to reach me from 
different points at which I was assigned to 
speak asking me to send on in advance the sub- 
ject of the sermon I was to preach at each 
particular place. It is needless to say that such 
a request could not reasonably be complied 
with, inasmuch as plans had been made for me 
to speak two and three times a day to audi- 
ences of various kinds — some in churches, some 
in theater buildings, some in schools and hos- 
pitals, and others in private houses. 

On November 6, in the afternoon, I boarded 
the fast mail train at the Shimbashi station, in 

(89) 



90 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

Tokyo. Little men dressed in uniform stood 
at the gates to punch the tickets. The throng 
poured through the gates, making a great clat- 
tering noise walking over the granitoid plat- 
form with their wooden sandals as they hurried 
to the train. Armies nowadays are mobilizing, 
but the people have already mobilized. Wher- 
ever one goes now the population is in motion. 
The railway trains are crowded with men and 
women who are moving from place to place and 
who are in pursuit of various ends. 

The journey was broken at Hiroshima, where 
\\\(j first meeting was to take place. This city 
was reached after a run of twenty-four hours, 
after the train had passed through many im- 
portant cities — Yokohama, Shizuoka, Xagoya, 
Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Okayama. 

Three hundred women had gathered for the 
afternoon preaching service in the public hall 
at Hiroshima. Many of the prominent women 
of the city were present, including, it was said, 
the wife of the governor of the prefecture. 
Madam Hirooka and Rev. T. Makino, pastor 
of a Congregational Church in Kyoto, were to 
speak at this meeting, at which I was also ex- 
pected to make an address. Madam Hirooka 
was speaking when I arrived. I have already 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 91 

mentioned that she is very outspoken and di- 
rect in her appeals to the audiences addressed 
by her. When I entered the hall, the first word 
I heard in her address was ippu ipptt, a fa- 
miliar expression in the Japanese language, 
meaning "One husband, one wife." Mr. Makino 
followed, and in his address he had much to say 
of the ryosai-kembo theory of a woman's place 
in life. This term translated literally means, 
"Good wife, wise mother." It sums up wom- 
an's purpose in the world according to the tra- 
ditional view. 

When it came my turn to speak, it was a 
quarter to five in the afternoon. It was hope- 
less to battle against fate, for the duties of a 
Japanese wife at that hour of the day were too 
exacting to be set aside in a moment. I re- 
marked that, according to the ideal of a ryosai- 
kembo, five o'clock in the afternoon was a most 
important hour in the household for the wife or 
mother. I would, therefore, not undertake to 
encroach on their duties as thus interpreted. I 
asked the ladies present to consider the signifi- 
cance of Christ for womanhood, for the home, 
and for the nation and took my seat. It was 
perhaps fortunate that the speakers who had 
preceded me had filled up the time with earnest 



( .)*J Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

addresses, it Is extremely unwise to give no 

place for an interval between a long railway 
journey and a public address. 

At night a large audience of men and a few 
women came to the same place, where the three 
Bpeakers of tin- afternoon were again announced 
to make addresses. Small flags of many na- 

tion8, hung in diagonal rows across just be- 
neath the ceiling, formed a pretty festoon over 
the heads of the people. When Madam Hi- 

rooka came on the platform and announced 
that .she would speak on "The Sonship of 
Believers," ju^t at that moment the noise 
could be heard from the streets outside made 
by the crowds shouting over the fall of Tsing- 
tau. The flags of the struggling nations were 
there before our eyes, symbols of the tribal 
consciousness. The surrounding noises, the 
flags, the state of war, all gave to Madam Hi- 
rooka's interpretation of sonship as the deep- 
est reality in life a peculiar significance. Paul's 
words were echoing and reechoing in my mind 
as I looked at the flags and listened to the 
speaker: "For I reckon that the sufferings of 
the present time are not to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us. For 
the earnest expectation of the creature wait- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 93 

eth for the manifestation of the sons of God." 
The task of giving universal reality to the 
consciousness of sonship never seemed more 
stupendous nor more glorious than at that 
hour. 

No one can understand the New Testament 
who does not see in the deep struggles reflected 
in its pages between Judaism and the early 
Christian movement a clash between tribal an- 
cestry and sonship based on the new birth. To 
the Jews who declared, "We are Abraham's 
seed," Jesus replied: "My word hath no place 
in you." "We be Abraham's seed, and were 
never in bondage to any man," the Jews proud- 
ly declared. And to this the Saviour re- 
sponded: "If the Son shall make you free, ye 
shall be free indeed." It was to those who re- 
lied upon descent in Israel that John opposed 
the new Israel when speaking of those who would 
achieve citizenship by moral character: "He 
that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I 
will be his God, and he shall be my son." The 
tribal consciousness is as strong among the 
present-day Japanese as it was among the Jews 
in the time of Christ. The Japanese regard 
their lineage as autochthonous. The emperor 
is the father of the people. All trace their de- 



• ( 'hrist in Ji 

it, directly or indirectly, to the imperial 
line. 

On our way to the home of Rev. J. T. ]\1< j 
• here we were being entertained, I observed 
changes in the city of Hiroshima marking prog- 
•• idened, train cars were 
running, and, in place of the frame building in 
which our people had worshiped for many 
years, there stood a new brick structure soon 
to be dedicated. On our left as we walked 
along we passi d a great group of buildings cov- 
ering an entire block. This was the Hiroshima 
Girls 9 School, begun a quarter of a century 
by Miss X. B. Gaines, whose monumental 
work is a testimony to her consecration and 
genius. It was here that "Frances Little" 
(Mrs. Fannie McCauley) wrote the letters 
which gave her world fame when she afterwards 
published them under the title "Lady of the 
Decoration." 

//. The Fall of the Devil's Castle. 

The next morning, November 8, I was out 
early in order to catch the train to Yanai. The 
run was short and along the coast of the Inland 
Sea. Miyajima was passed on the left, one of 
the three great views of Japan, an island not 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 95 

far from shore and on this occasion glowing 
with peculiar beauty in the morning light. 
Formed of a range of hills not more than two 
thousand feet in height, indented with valleys 
and covered with foliage, Miyajima, or Temple 
Island, is a spot which has attracted visitors 
from many lands. Though sacred to Shinto, it 
is rather a symbol of Buddhism. On the island 
no birth or death, it is said, has ever taken 
place. It is, therefore, a symbol of the abso- 
lute; for to the Buddhists the finite world is 
the realm of birth and death. To those who 
contemplate with a sense of dread eternal 
change the unbroken calm of Miyajima must 
be attractive. 

Our train wheeled around curves, along the 
seashore, bringing into view picturesque scenes 
— islands in the dim distance and islands as near 
and as distinct in outline as an experience of 
yesterday. There were white sails hovering 
over the tranquil sea. There were small steam- 
ers plowing the quiet waters, carrying bur- 
dens of peaceful commerce. There were also 
torpedo destroyers, monstrous-looking vessels, 
harshly discordant with the charm and undis- 
turbed peace of the surrounding scene. 

At the station at Yanai I was pleasantly sur- 



96 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

prised to find one of the first converts after I 
took up missionary work in Japan, Rev. S. 
Kudo, in charge of the Methodist Church at 
that place. The Methodists and Presbyterians 
met together in the morning, the i!ions 

combined numbering not more than a score of 
persons present. Their nui mall, vet 

they had the courage of true faith. They had 
been bold enough to rent a theater building for 
the night meeting. Still their courage sank 
within them when it was announced that the fall 
of Tsing-tau would be celebrated with a street 
parade that night. The Christians, when they 
called at the hotel during the afternoon, were 
very nervous, lest the parade should interfere 
with the attendance at the meeting. Rev. N. 
Fukada arrived in time for the night meeting 
and was to be one of the speakers. 

It was useless to try to escape giving a sub- 
ject for the evening meeting. In view of the 
celebration announced, I gave them as the sub- 
ject of my discourse "Yokujo no KanraJcu." 
Translated, it means, "Downfall of the Lust 
(or Devil's) Castle." The supper was brought 
and consisted of crab, raw red snapper, a shell- 
fish something like a clam, seaweed, mushrooms, 
and rice. There was a chill in the atmosphere, 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 97 

so the brazier was brought in, a bronze vessel 
the size of a water bucket. It was filled with 
ashes, in the middle of which a few lumps of 
charcoal burned with a red glow, before which 
we warmed our bodies through the palms of our 
hands. 

When we left the hotel after supper for the 
theater meeting, the lantern procession had be- 
gun. Through a narrow street winding toward 
us down the mountain side the procession 
passed, moving in our direction like a current 
of glowing fire, for all the people carried 
lighted paper lanterns, red in color. There 
were many young children in the procession, 
schoolboys and girls, and their voices rang out 
above the rest into the night as they cried: 
"Nippon katta; Doitsu maketa" (Japan victo- 
rious; Germany defeated). 

To our surprise and satisfaction, the theater 
building was soon filled. For two hours the 
gospel was preached, first by myself and then 
by Mr. Fukada. It is always interesting to 
listen to Japanese preachers interpreting from 
their point of view the gospel of Christ. Many 
quaint illustrations find a place in their dis- 
course. Some of these — in fact, many of them 
— are more in accord with Biblical usage than 
7 



98 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

the figures and terms used by us. For example, 

the contrast between head and heart is never 
heard in their discourse. Mr. Fukada in his 
sermon remarked that "Japanese young men 
were filling their heads with knowledge, but 
their Kara were empty." Now, hara does not 
mean the heart, but the cavity of the body be- 
low the diaphragm! It is almost equivalent, in 
Japanese psychological usage, to the Greek 
word t planch noi in the New Testament and 
used by Paul when lie said to the Corinthians: 
"Ye are Btraitened in your own borccls." 
Orientals locate the passions in the viscera 
("bowels of mercies"). I heard another Jap- 
anese speaker, putting his right hand on his 
right side and his left hand on his left side and 
both just below the stomach, exclaim: "We 
Japanese need more personality." On the way 
to the hotel from the meeting that night an- 
other Scriptural figure was used by a layman 
in the church at Yanai. He said: "We were 
uneasy after we had engaged the theater build- 
ing when it was given out that a lantern pro- 
cession would be held. We feared our Christian 
project would fall through; but it was wrong 
for us to think that God's hand was thus short- 
ened." In Isaiah it is said: "Is my hand 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 99 

shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?" The 
Christians were elated over the outcome of the 
meeting. Their faith had been rewarded. It 
goes a long way toward securing permanent re~ 
suits when local leaders, not depending alto- 
gether upon the visiting speakers, enter thus 
heartily in the campaign. Before I left Yanai 
I heard the Presbyterians discussing the ques- 
tion of erecting a church building. 

HI. Coming Again with Rejoicing. 

On November 9, in crossing the Inland Sea 
from Hiroshima to Matsuyama, I retraced a 
journey taken twenty-six years ago, when I 
was on the way to Oita, my first mission sta- 
tion. At that time we changed at Matsuyama 
from the small steamer plying between Hiro- 
shima and Matsuyama to a larger vessel run- 
ning from Osaka to points on the island of 
Kyushiu. 

The Inland Sea at any time is an interesting 
body of water. If nature dreams, this sea 
must be one of its dreams, so fantastic are its 
island forms, so wandering are its shore lines, 
so subtle and even ethereal are the gradations of 
shade and color on its ever-changing surface. 
But on this occasion, as we approached the har- 



100 Japan. 

bor at Matsuyama, there was a mist everywhere. 
Sky and sea were watery and gray, and n< 
line or color was observable anywhere. Yet the 
light of the midday sun was sufficiently diffused 
through the mist to impart to the surface of 
the sea a sheen of light peculiarly soft and me- 
tallic in appearance. There was an indescrib- 
able mellowness in sea and sky as the ship gen- 
tly glided along, a tenderness like the mei 
of the Lord, which arc over all his works. 

A large theater building had been secured 
for the meeting at Matsuyama, about the only 
public building available, and a successful galh- 
ering the night In ','■■ eported to us. On 

the platform there was an organ played by 
Miss Bates, a local missionary; and from a vio- 
lin Mr. Bennett, also a missionary, drew sweet 
music to the delight of the audience. As is 
their custom, the Christians had brought flow- 
ers with which to ornament the platform. Usu- 
ally these are in a single vase and consist of a 
branch of a tree or a bunch of flowers placed 
within. This time there was a great vase on 
the platform containing fiery red coxcombs 
and a branch of the Japanese yatsude, or 
"eight-handed" fatsia, an evergreen shrub of 
the ginseng family. Around the ceiling there 



Campaigning for Christ m Japan. 101 

hung in rows more than a hundred Japanese 
lanterns cylindrical in form and large in size. 
These were not lighted, for the room was illumi- 
nated with a cluster of electric burners on a 
chandelier pendent from the center of the ceil- 
ing and with numerous individual burners glow- 
ing everywhere in the auditorium. The dimness 
of these burners only served to add a touch of 
mystery to the scene. Back of the platform, 
where the stage curtains were operated, strips 
of paper ten feet in length and a foot in width, 
attached at the top and hanging loose at the 
ends, swayed gently in the breeze coming in 
from the open windows. On each of these was 
written the name of one speaker and the subject 
of his discourse. The people sat on the floor 
in the pit and in the galleries in Japanese fash- 
ion. Frames partitioned off the seats into 
squares, in each of which two persons sat, the 
arrangement reminding one of the racks placed 
on the table on board ship when the sea is 
rough. Here and there a puff of smoke would 
rise into the air, it being the custom of Jap- 
anese to take occasional whiffs of tobacco in a 
public gathering. A little group of Christians, 
the pastors of the different Churches, Bible 
women, and others, were behind the curtains, 



102 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

and some of them were Berving tea to those 
who had part in the program of the evening. 
ng these was Mrs. Yanagiwara, advanced 
in years, feeble in body, hut strong in the 
Christian faith. Then there was her daughter- 
in-law, a very active Christian, whose husband, 
Rev, N'ainio Yanagiwara, was the presiding of- 
ficer of the evening. He is the preacher in 
charge of the Methodist Church at Matsuyama 

and the presiding elder of the Matsuyama Dis- 
triet. In opening the .service he made an ear- 
and powerful appeal, speaking for thir- 
ty minutes. lie and his wife talked much 
to me about their children — for they have a 
family now, the oldest of which has completed 
the high school course at Kwansci Gakuin — and 
they earnestly sought my counsel and help, 
looking to the sending of their eldest son to 
Central College, Missouri, where he might re- 
ceive a college education under Christian influ- 
ence. 

There are exultant moments in human expe- 
rience, times of elation as well as of depression. 
This occasion at Matsuyama was one of those 
times when the sense of joy and power is pe- 
culiarly strong, the feeling of an upward spring 
of the spirit within. I was braced, first of all, 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 103 

by spending the afternoon with Brother T. W. 
B. Demaree, who is toiling on all alone at his 
station, while his family is in Kentucky, where 
the children are going to school. I felt that 
tonic effect which one experiences in the pres- 
ence of sacrifice. Then, though the rain was 
pouring down and there was some anxiety as to 
the attendance, there was a distinct relief and a 
feeling of encouragement when it was found 
that the theater building was well filled, there 
being between six and seven hundred people 
present. But greater inspiration came from a 
sense of the unfolding providence during the 
intervening years. There is a song of ascent 
in human experience like that of the return 
from exile. In fact, the Psalms marked songs 
of degrees; or, more correctly, "ascents" (cxx.- 
cxxxiv.) may be descriptive of progressions 
either in providence or in human experience. 
The words of Psalm cxxvi. come to us on occa- 
sions like this at Matsuyama as sweet music, as 
a song of throbbing gratitude and of the har- 
vest joy experienced in all pioneer work in the 
Church of Christ. 

It had been twenty-six years since I first met 
the one who presided at this important gather- 
ing in Matsuyama, where all the Churches were 



mere 



104 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

united for a great campaign. While a 
y° utn ] ' ' my home and stood by the 

nda while he talked to me. He .said that he 
to study the Bible and to become a 
Mian. He and his brother were soon en- 
rolled as pro! . But that was the begin- 
ning of trouble. If the harvest was with joy, 
tIh " - with tears. Persecution began, 
Their father was an official in the pivfectural 
Offices and a stern Samurai of the olden type. 
It was his duty, before (he country was opened, 
to see that everv one in that province placed 
his foot upon th( of Christ upon the 
I repudiated the Christian religion. It 
was in thi. vay that th a k en . He 
told me after his conversion that frequently he 
had taken the tiny foot of a babe, brought in its 
mot! . and placed it upon the fwmiye, 
or "trodden image of Jesus," while the parent 
took the oath of abjuration. The old Samurai 
was thrown into a paroxysm of rage when his 
sons became Christians. But eventually he 
called on me and frankly acknowledged that a 
change had become apparent in his boys, both 
in character and conduct. When I urged him 
to seek for the good that had come into the 
lives of his sons, he replied that his social con- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 105 

nections, his advanced years, and his long use 
of intoxicating drinks precluded him from en- 
tering the Christian life. Yet these were over- 
come, and he and his wife followed their sons 
into the Church. The old man became one of 
our most stalwart laymen. He died a trium- 
phant death, and his body now rests on the hill- 
side in the outskirts of Oita in the little plat 
of ground which he himself by his own exertions 
secured from the government as a Christian 
burial place. 

When going upon the platform before an au- 
dience the greater part of whom are people who 
know little of the Christian religion and to 
whom one must speak in a foreign tongue, the 
first impulse is to breathe a silent prayer for 
gracious assistance in the use of language as 
well as in the presentation of Christian truth. 
But at Matsuyama, when I went before the peo- 
ple, the presence of Namio Yanagiwara was 
reassuring. It was the pledge to me of the 
nearness of One whose silent and invisible work 
had brought to maturity the early beginnings 
in Oita and had given a reality to the prayers 
and hopes of our first days of service in Japan. 
A whole family, with its connections, had been 
lifted out of darkness and had become a bless- 



106 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

ing to many others in an ever-widening exten- 

gospe] by which their own lives were 

emed. No wonder that moments in Matsu- 

1a were precious. One cannot but acquire 

new strength for the coming task when K 

the promise fulfilled: k 'IL that goeth forth and 

Mi, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 

come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 

with him." 

IV. An Oregon Ward in a Japanese Hospital. 

Our small steamer reached Kure about noon 
the following day. In among the hills clad in 
pine forests and on the shore of a picturesque 
bay is located the great naval yard of Japan, 
with its di aals, and hospitals. On my 

first trip across the Inland Sea, twenty-six v 

- an unimportant village. Now 
population of one hundred and twen- 
ty thousai The growth is due largely 
to connection with the navy. 

Kindly hospitality was extended to us by 
Rev. and Mrs. Harvey S. Brokaw, of the Pres- 
byterian Mission. There was one child at 
home, little Frances, twelve years of age. She 
was going to school to her father and mother, 
reciting her lessons first to one and then to the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 107 

other. Mr. Brokaw was making good use of a 
motor car in evangelizing the adjacent dis- 
tricts. It was amazing how many villages he 
reached and the number of tracts he distribu- 
ted on a single tour. 

Our first appointment was at a local hospital. 
Arrangements had been made for us, myself and 
Mr. Makino, to address the staff, consisting of 
about sixty doctors and nurses. We were ac- 
companied by Miss Gillespie, of the Church 
Missionary Society, who seemed to be held in 
high honor at the hospital, and by Mr. Kosaka, 
who is in charge of the Methodist Church at 
Kure. The visit was most satisfactory. Re- 
spectful attention was given to our addresses. 
Courtesies were shown us by the head of the 
hospital, and we were surprised to find among 
the wards one named for our battleship Oregon. 
It was provided with eight beds. The United 
States government had sent the Oregon on one 
occasion to Kure for repairs. The men on the 
Oregon, greatly to their credit, on taking their 
departure contributed funds for the equipment 
of this ward. The superintendent, physicians, 
and nurses connected with the hospital seemed 
to be pleased when I expressed the wish and 
hope that such friendly intercourse would ever- 



108 Campaigning for Christ in Jt 



pan. 



more be maintained between Japan and the 

United States. 

At night I preached at the Baptist chapel, 

where about twenty wire present. The forces 
had been mass< vening at the Methodist 

preaching place, where about one hundred and 
twenty were In attendance. One of the Jap- 
*e speakers at the latter place was inter- 
rupted while lead,'. one-time 
follower of Miyazaki, the prophet. "Don't be 
a hypocrite while praj man shouted 
from the and- p silent." The intruder 
liacI been of Miyazaki, in Tokyo, who 
claims he- is a nd is the incarnation of 
Christ and Buddha and Confucius. Upon hear- 
ing that Miyazaki was not correct in his pri- 
vate life, the Kure man had abandoned his 
cau-e and was now in a Christian meeting. In 
spite of the interruption, the service went on 
and with good results. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon the pastors 
and workers met together at the Baptist head- 
quarters for a Hhuyolcwai, and at night the 
preaching services were held at the Episcopal 
church. Mr. Kuzoku, a Presbyterian evangel- 
ist, was my fellow laborer in this service. His 
sermon was remarkable for its genuine evangel- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 109 

istic note. The speaker had thoroughly at- 
tained in heart and head the truth of the gos- 
pel. The net was cast by the pastor, and many 
indicated their desire to become enrolled as pro- 
bationers. Though this service was held in an 
Episcopalian church, the attitude of Episco- 
palians throughout the country toward united 
undertakings among Protestant bodies is not 
uniform. Representatives of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society enter into cooperation, as a 
rule, while the missionaries of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel hold aloof. 
American Episcopalians are divided on the 
question. As a rule, however, missionary rela- 
tions are friendly. Conferences are held in 
which all participate, even those who will not 
enter into cooperation. 

In the afternoon the English ladies served tea 
to a few of us at their cottage on the hill. 
Near by we found an old student, now well-to- 
do, who was conducting a store. He had called 
upon us at the Brokaw residence soon after we 
arrived and presented us with a wooden deer, 
carved at Miyajima, not far away. Another 
former student was assisting Mr. Brokaw as 
secretary and evangelist. On the table at Mr. 
Brokaw's, as on the table in missionary homes 



110 Campaigning for Christ fa Japan. 

oughout the country, we found the family 
plied with Utsunomiya butter. The story 
ad is known throughout 
J;l ^ man at the point of 

starvatl ' un hl ; ?ed for something to eat 

.•it the house of a fanner. He found in the wife 
.1 friend. She believed his story and gave him 
a five-dollar bill. Truly characteristic of a 
Japanese young man, he at once turned his 
course to an agricultural college in Iowa, feel- 
ing that he had sufficient means with which to 
start in getting an education. He succ< 
in finishing his course and returned to the 
Wand of Hokkaido, a sparsely populated 
island, where Japanese experiment farming is 
carried on. Here he acquired wealth and is 
now conducting a great farm. He is a Chris- 
tian man; and in grateful remembrance, it is 
said, he sends a box of farm products every 
year to the generous-hearted friends who helped 
him at the time of his extremity in Iowa. 

V. A Converted Publican in the Pastorate. 

At Pukuyama I met Dr. Sasao, Dean of the 
German Reformed School at Sendai. The 
Christians had engaged rooms in a small but 
elegant Japanese hotel. From our room we 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 111 

looked down upon a courtyard, decorated with 
rockeries and pine trees and surrounded by the 
hotel buildings. A motto hung on the wall in 
our room, skillfully written, declared that the 
"Spring wind gives peace." In different parts 
of the city industries had been established. 
Smoke was rising into the sky from the cotton- 
spinning factories. The feudal castle was a con- 
spicuous landmark which could be seen for miles 
from any direction. 

The meetings had been held one night in the 
Episcopal church and the next night in the 
Presbyterian church. The night we were there 
the building rented by the Methodists was the 
place of meeting. Mr. Matsushita, Methodist 
preacher in charge, was a publican when con- 
verted. Now he is fifty-seven years of age, with 
white, flowing beard upon his face, and a man 
of lovable character and usefulness in the min- 
istry. He has one son in the ministry, and his 
family are members of the Church. 

At the night service there were judges, law- 
yers, school-teachers, officials, and business men 
in the audience. Among them, sitting near the 
front, was a kangakusha, or teacher of Chinese, 
now eighty-four years of age and celebrated in 
that part of the country. He listened with in- 



1 1- ( Japan. 

terest to the sermons. He was taking Bible 
Lessons before the meeti . He admired 

the Sermon on the Mount, but found difficulty 
in accepting the mirad nist, 

his religion was similar to the deism of J 

and Franklin — a religion chi al in 

character, without the touch of fervid emotions, 
A choir i Qg beautifully at I 

ning i . and the c< [ona] -in ir- 

iocL 
The next morning Brother Mai fter 

a union prayi r lucted me through 

the old feudal castle. We followed the winding 
ige from floor to floor, until we reached the 
donjon, from which could be seen the magnifi- 
cent I . a stretch of fields, beyond which 
there was a range of hills on one side and a 
winding seacoast on the other. There was lit- 
tle harmony between the military castle and the 
surrounding landscape. The hills were gently 
rolling and foliage-clad and were not frowning 
ramparts of rugged stones, such as a military 
fortress would suggest. 

In certain rooms of the castle there were 
stored relics of the past. There were pictures 
dim with age and armor rusty from long dis- 
use. Calligraphy had left records of Confucian 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 113 

sentiment, penned on scrolls and panels by the 
scholars of the past. In these the pleasurable 
sensations derived from reading, from nature, 
and from social intercourse were praised in ele- 
gant or felicitous phrases. Confucianism failed 
to recognize the tragedy of life. Even Bud- 
dhism taught that the whole creation groaneth 
and travaileth together in pain until now, 
though this religion failed to wait with hopeful 
outlook for the manifestation of the sons of 
God. 

The Japanese nationalist never loses an op- 
portunity to remind us that in the past history 
of Europe there has been endless strife and con- 
troversy, while at the same time he boasts of 
unity and harmony characteristic of the bygone 
centuries of Japanese history. But these feudal 
castles dotting the Japanese landscape tell a 
different story. They are not fortresses raised 
in defense against the attack of foreign foes; 
they bear witness to internal struggles, of which 
there have been as many in Japan as in any 
other country. Here, as elsewhere, the hand 
of man has been raised against his brother. 
Nowhere has militarism been cultivated as an 
ideal with greater seriousness than in Japan. 
The clans have dominated the countiy for a 
8 



11 4 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

thousand years and are still dominant. Next 
to Germany and Russia, Japan devotes more of 
her national energy to military and naval pro- 
grams than any other modern nation; more in 
proportion — that is to say, to her national re- 
sources, her national strength. The Bu.shido 
ideal is Dot that of Bcrnhardi, though the one 
may easily pass into the other. In army organi- 
zation and imperialism Japan is not unlike Ger- 
many at the present time, and in certain fields 
the two empires are rivals. But Bfishido was 
not a highly thought-out concept of the State. 
It was a form of life under feudalism cultivat- 
ing ideals of persona] honor, valor, and self- 
control similar to those once prevalent in Eu- 
rope and pictured to us in the novels of Sir 
Walter Scott. Though fighting efficiency has 
been developed to a high degree in modern Ja- 
pan, other lines of national efficiency have been 
lightened. The Upbuilding forces, however, 
have been secular. In order to give supremacy 
to spiritual forces an immense task remains to 
be performed, the greatness and vital impor- 
tance of which is felt increasingly by the 
Church. It requires more than the awakening 
of the intellectual life to bring to a realization 
the reign of the Spirit in national affairs. The 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 115 

agencies which evoke and sustain faith must be 
relied upon. The development of industrial- 
ism, international trade, and colonial expansion 
will increase not only in Japan, but in other 
vigorous nations. It is taking a clutch on time 
by the forelock to make secure now the domi- 
nant influence of spiritual ideals. 

VI. Preaching in a Railway Station. 

Leaving Fukuyama, accompanied by Dr. Sa- 
sao, we journeyed westward on the trunk line 
of railway that runs from Tokyo to Shimono- 
seki. As we came to Tokuyama a whirl of the 
train around a curve brought into view a scene 
that the imagination itself could not surpass in 
delicacy and beauty. We had been following 
the coast line, and now, as we looked out upon 
the sea, there was an evening stillness like that 
of a picture. Even the sails seemed fixed as 
upon a canvas. The gold in the sky, visible be- 
tween dark clouds, was reflected upon the sur- 
face of water. Deep indigo islands rose out 
of the sea, over the surface of which there 
spread a sheen of gold. The prospect put one 
under a spell as under an enchantment. The 
grays had been changed to tints of gold and 
purple and crimson, as if the Master, who 



116 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

turned water into wine, had spoken. The radi- 
ance of the daylight hours was gone, and on 
the face of >kv and sea and land there was a 
filmy haze, rendering all the more agreeable and 
entrancing the superb and delicate exhibition of 
nature's hidden beauty. 

Mr. Booth, a young man employed to teach 
English in a government school, gave us shelter 
under his roof. He is but one of a considerable 
number of young men from American colleges 
i red throughout Japan and occupying po- 
Bitioi Lish in the Japanese 

-. On the walls of his study 
the first thing to attracl [r. Booth's 

colleg 'it. on which "Hamilton" (the 

name of his college) was imprinted in large let- 
iipper about twenty-five students 
were invited to his study by Mr, Booth before 
the evening meeting. I sought earnestly to im- 
press upon the minds of these high-school stu- 
dents the importance of religion. 

At night, arrangements had been made for two 
services — one at the Methodist chapel, where I 
was to speak, and the other at the Presbyterian 
chapel, where Dr. Sasao was to speak. Both 
places were crowded to the utmost capacity. 
As a rule, it is not wise for missionaries to at- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 117 

tack social customs with a view to their reform. 
It is better for the native speakers to discuss 
matters looking to the improvement of national 
customs and social institutions. It seemed so 
relevant at one point in my address that I could 
not refrain from speaking of the cruel tyranny 
of the Japanese hotel proprietors. At Fuku- 
yama I heard Dr. Sasao conversing with the 
help employed to wait upon us at the hotel. 
He was trying to find out what were their hours. 
He said that he had inquired at other places 
and had learned that the custom was for the 
servants to retire at one o'clock in the morning 
and to arise at five o'clock and begin their work 
at daybreak. The next morning the preacher 
in charge of the chapel at which I had spoken 
received letters from a number of teachers in 
one of the government schools expressing their 
profound appreciation of the truths they had 
heard set forth. I was happy that no offense 
had been given and happier still that the truth 
of Christ had been impressed upon the minds of 
intelligent men in the audience. 

Before leaving for our next appointment, Dr. 
Sasao went to speak in one of the schools, while 
I was invited to address the railway employees 
at the station. Seats were brought in, and I 



118 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

permitted to speak more than an hour to 
about thirty men connected with the railway at 
that place. As a class the railway men of Ja- 
pan are open-minded, and there is a fine oppor- 
tunity among them for presenting the gospel of 
Christ: an opportunity not only among railway 
nun, but opportunities everywhere. Gates 
stand open on every hand. This campaign it- 
self is creating openings which the force at hand 
Is not prepared to enter. Rev. II. P. Jones, of 
our Methodist Mission, and Rev. C. I.. White- 
ner, of the Presbyterian Mission, are here on 
this coast and with us in these meetings. But 
they find themselves too limited in resources to 
follow with an effort all along- the coast suffi- 
cient to conserve the results of these meetings. 
One means of good would be in the erection of 
church buildings. Thirty years ago J. W. 
Lambuth visited towns on this coast; yet we 
still find ourselves without houses of worship at 
many places. The time is at hand for a re- 
newal of effort and outlay (all the missions are 
convinced) for the evangelization of Japan, 
eighty per cent of the population of which has 
not yet been reached by the Christian propa- 
ganda. Another deficiency that should be over- 
come is in providing the missionaries on the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 119 

field with competent assistant evangelists. It 
requires more now, since salaries have become 
higher, to command the services of useful men. 

VII. "No Pleasure in Ambiguity." 

At Mitajiri Madam Hirooka joined us for 
the services at that place. At the hotel the 
Christians were waiting for her arrival, in the 
meantime showing what courtesies they could to 
Dr. Sasao and myself. The public school build- 
ing had been secured in the face of much preju- 
dice for our afternoon meeting. Madam Hi- 
rooka presently arrived and was given the seat 
of honor in the large room in the hotel reserved 
for us — that is, the seat most distant from the 
door. She inquired at once as to the meetings. 
When informed that the public school building 
had been tendered for use in the afternoon meet- 
ing, she at once asked if she would be free to 
speak without reserve concerning Christ. The 
Christians told her that, owing to prejudice and 
the delicacy of the situation, it might be well 
to speak with some reserve. She bluntly re- 
marked that they were only half enlightened in 
that community and that she would decline to 
speak. She turned to me and made the remark 
that "there is no pleasure in ambiguity." 



120 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

The Christians finally prevailed upon her to 
make an add] i Jly as they had gone to 

much trouble to induce the women of the com- 
munity to attend the meeting. Dinner was 
served in a hotel. I could not make out all the 
tllin - fore us. In pn paring a meal the 

can outdo "Hei varieties." 

AltlT dinner I . jinrikishas in single file 

dashed through th carrying us toward 

the public school buildings, some distance away, 
id (he outskirts of the town. On the hills 
not far away we could see the famous temple 
dedicated to the worship of Sugiwara Michi- 
■ In the autumn festival thousands of peo- 
. ither here, some say a million, and move 
in a greal procession from th< t< mple to the sea. 
They arc dressed in white garb, and before them 
two arks are carri third is drawn by 

oxen. These are followed by a priest riding a 
sacred horse and attended by assistants. 

About three hundred had assembled in the 
auditorium of the public school. Facing the 
platform and at the opposite end of the build- 
ing were two large Chinese characters, meaning 
"Loyalty and Filial Piety." These two Confu- 
cian terms sum up the whole duty of man ac- 
cording to the prevalent teaching of those who 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 121 

are connected with the national system of 
schools. Everything went off well, and it was 
felt that good impressions were made in behalf 
of Christianity. 

After returning to the hotel Madam Hirooka 
said to me: "It is so strange to me that I do 
not become fatigued in doing the Lord's work." 
It was strange indeed ; for she had reached the 
advanced age of sixty-five years and had been 
in a strenuous campaign, speaking three and 
four times a day for about ten days. That 
night the rain came down in torrents. Still 
there was a good attendance at the place rented 
for the meeting. Madam Hirooka spoke first 
and then took the train for Osaka. It was Sat- 
urday night, and she desired to reach Osaka, 
her home, by Sunday morning in order to be 
present at the baptism and reception into the 
Church of a personal friend whom she had led 
to Christ. 

According to the plan of arrangement, I was 
to remain over at Mitajiri and preach Sunday 
morning, which I did; while Dr. Sasao was to 
proceed to Yamaguchi, where I was to join him 
for an afternoon students' rally in the public 
theater and for a preaching service at night. 
It was not surprising that Dr. Sasao was wait- 



122 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

ing with deep interest to know what the out- 
come might be of the campaign at Yamaguchi. 

As we Bat in the hotel he related to me the 
story of his life. Shimonoseki, not far from 
Mitajiri, was his native city. His father was 

wealthy, but lost his money in speculation and 
moved away to the city of Osaka. At this place 
Dr. S converted to Christianity under 

the influence of two missionaries — Dr. Tyng, of 
the American Episcopal Mission, ami Dr. Alex- 
antler, of the American Presbyterian .Mission. 
Dr. Sasao, while a young man, had been sent to 
the government college a1 Yamaguchi. lie was 
the only Christian in the school at that time 
and suffered much annoyance because of his 
faith. The students nicknamed him "Yaso," 
or u Jesus," and would often throw him down 
and make a cross upon his back with chalk. 
Xo wonder that he was eager to know what the 
attitude of mind would prove to be the following 
da}* at Yamaguchi among the students in the 
numerous schools at that place. 

After leaving Yamaguchi, Dr. Sasao attended 
the Meiji Gakuin at a Presbyterian college at 
Tokyo. Later he attended the Auburn Theo- 
logical Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, 
and Columbia University, in the United States. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 123 

In recounting his religious experience he said 
that he had read at one time Pfleiderer's "Phi- 
losophy of Religion" and accepted it as final. 
As a result he lost "his interest in preaching." 
He said that Mr. Kanamori also lost his faith 
through reading this book. Dr. Sasao crossed 
over to Germany in order to hear Pfleiderer 
lecture in Berlin University ; but he was greatly 
disappointed. Though he found Professor 
Pfleiderer to be kind, gentlemanly, and scholar- 
ly, he did not awaken in him an enthusiasm for 
building up the kingdom of God in Japan. He 
left Berlin and went to Halle. There his faith 
was restored under Kcehler, a disciple of Tho- 
luck. 

VIII. Enthusiasm for Christ among Students. 

Yamaguchi is the seat of the prefecture of 
that name and is the home of one of the ruling 
clans of Japan, the other ruling clan having its 
home on the island of Kyushiu, in Satsuma. 
Prince Ito, who wrote the Constitution, came 
from this locality. Yamaguchi is now a city of 
schools. As one part of the campaign a rally 
for students had been advertised to be held in 
one of the public theaters at two o'clock Sunday 
afternoon. The meetings for students had been 



124 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

disappointing in some parts of the country ; but 
at Yamaguchi the auditorium was filled. Dr. 
o in his address spoke with peculiar inspira- 
tion and power. The memories of the past and 
the triumphs of the present seemed to fill his 
soul with joy and rapture. The impression he 
made upon that audience of students cannot be 
effaced in years to come. I felt out of place 
occupying time on the platform when the op- 
portunity unique for him, and especially 
as one of the professors from the Kyushiu Uni- 
versity, a .Japanese Christian, was also to speak. 
I took sufficient time, however, to lay upon the 
consciences of those Japanese } T oung men the 
claim of the hour for the cause of religion in 
Japan. I told them plainly that if the young 
men had responded to the call of God in suffi- 
cient numbers for the dissemination of Chris- 
tian truth there would have been no necessity 
for the strenuous labors such as were engaged 
in by Madam Hirooka, Mr. Ebara, Mr. Mori- 
mura, and others of advanced age. 

Sunday evening I preached in the Methodist 
church, followed by Dr. Sasao. Mr. Kondo 
had an automobile waiting for me, so that I 
could connect with the fast train at Mitajiri for 
Tokyo. The distance to be covered was twelve 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 125 

miles, though the road was good. The motor 
car screamed as it sped along the highway, 
through villages and fields. The shrill honk, 
sounding at frequent intervals to warn footmen 
and jinrikishas, echoed through the hills and was 
startling enough to disturb in their imagined 
presence the gods dwelling in shrines by the 
wayside. What innovations science and inven- 
tion are making in regions of the earth long the 
haunts of superstition, terror, and myth! 

All night long the rocking of the train, the 
noise of the buffers, the voices of the venders at 
stations selling drinks, fruits, newspapers, and 
tobacco mingled with the dreams of a half- 
wakeful sleep. The strenuous campaign of the 
past ten days had been brought to a close. 
During its intense hours the gospel had been 
presented, and living issues had been discussed. 
Amid the activities of the Churches at different 
places one seemed to realize in his own soul 
something of the griefs and sorrows, the de- 
lusions and thralldoms, the hopes and aspira- 
tions of the multitudes into whose faces he had 
looked and to whom he had addressed appeals 
to heart and mind and will with a view to awak- 
ening men to the possibilities of a higher and 
more triumphant life. And strange it all seems 



126 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

that one should be Bpeaking in a foreign tongue 
to communities remote from his own, seeking 
to change their course of life and action! If 
this be an apparent intrusion, the answer is 
that it is one of the incongruities of which life 
is full. There is no greater consensus of opin- 
ion on any one point than that the facts about 
human life are exactly what they ought not to 
be. "Why do men everywhere cling to shadows 
when they should know truth as open-faced as 
the day? Why Is the truth bo falsified by pas- 
sion and prejudice? Why do the great ma- 
jority of people remain in a state of mental 
childhood, while the means are close at hand 
for their intellectual development? Why is it 
that, possessing eyes to see, the faces of men 
are turned away from the light? Answer these 
questions, and you solve the paradoxes of life as 
it is here upon earth, and at the same time you 
bring to light the reasons justifying the foreign 
missionary enterprise. 

Yokohama. 
"Apart from Christ, No True Individual." 
At the shuyokwai held at Yokohama I was 
much impressed with Dr. Ebina's remarks con- 
cerning the individual. His address followed 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 127 

mine. Neither of us had knowledge beforehand 
as to what the theme discussed would be by ei- 
ther of us. I spoke on "The Social Conscious- 
ness." I called attention to the great reform 
brought about in our day as the result of a 
deepening of the social obligation. I pointed 
out to the workers and pastors that the Church 
was the only effective agency by which the so- 
cial sense could be developed. 

When Dr. Ebina came on the platform, he 
had a very different message on his mind. He 
had come to discuss the development of the in- 
dividual, so long neglected in Oriental society. 
His speech was characteristic of the general 
trend in Japan. I had spoken rather from the 
point of view of the West. The currents at the 
present time in the East and in the West are 
moving in opposite directions. In Japan they 
are seeking to discover the individual ; in West- 
ern countries the aim in view is to place a new 
accent on the social life and obligation. 

Dr. Ebina discussed the individual from the 
point of view of traditional social institutions 
in Japan. The individual had not been recog- 
nized except as a member of the family or State. 
Chu-ko, or "loyalty and filial piety,' 9 summed 
up the whole duty of man. 



128 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

A recent illustration of these virtues is the 
death of General Nogi, who, with his wife, took 
his life at the hour when the funeral ceremonies 
of the late emperor were being conducted. 
This is known as jtmshi, or "following in 
death." The suicide was an act of loyalty. 
The faithful general chose to follow his supe- 
rior into the other world. If his death was 
typical of the old order, the adverse public 
opinion, though expressed with bated breath, 
was an indication of new ideas at work in the 
minds of the Japan 

That new ideas are at work is beyond ques- 
tion. We sec a protest against corporate guilt, 
in the ancient prophets of Israel, an emphasis 
placed upon personal responsibility. The time 
would come, Jeremiah declared, "when they 
should say no more, The fathers have eaten 
sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on 
edge." There would be a sense of personal 
condemnation: "Every man that eatcth sour 
grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge." Man ' 
is dealt with by Jeremiah from the standpoint 
of his ethical relations. Individualism in Japan, 
recentl}' awakened, presents many aspects. The 
movement has similarities to the Renaissance 
in Europe, and it has points of agreement with 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 129 

the Reformation. It marks the revolt of the 
individual against social tradition and author- 
ity. A disharmony is felt between the individ- 
ual consciousness and ideas, customs, and insti- 
tutions handed down from the past, but now 
outworn and superseded by broader and high- 
er and more rational views of men and society. 
It shows itself in the spirit of revolt, in the 
disposition to question and to criticize, in the 
greater degree of alertness and sensitiveness 
shown by individuals in matters concerning 
their rights and interests. 

Dr. Ebina, in his Christian address, pene- 
trated to the deeper aspects of the question. 
His discussion was more from the ethical and 
religious point of view, and yet cogent in the 
clearness of his reasoning as regards the pri- 
mary importance of the moral side of the 
question, even in the solution of the individ- 
ualism which the present generation is clamor- 
ing to see realized. It was not with the 
speaker merely a matter of liberty in the ex- 
pression of opinion or emancipation from out- 
worn customs. Dr. Ebina declared that there 
could be no personal independence having real- 
ity and power apart from oneness with Christ. 
It was perfectly evident to any one following 
9 



130 Campaigning for Christ m Japan. 

his discourse that by union with Christ he had 
in mind more than outward obedience to Christ, 
more than inward harmony of will or intimacy 
of fellowship with him, more than an assimila- 
tion of his spirit. The union he spoke of was 
organic, mystical, and transcendent. It was 

sueh a union as Paul described when lie said: 
"I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
The discussion was worthy of the subject and 

was one that touched things fundamental. 

No individual answering in reality to the 
highest ideals can be wrought out through social 
conflict and reaction. That social situations, 
especially in modern society, involve a continu- 
ous stress and strain which have the effect of 
sharpening the individual consciousness is a 
fact no one need call in question. That society 
produces selfhood was seen by Buddhism, and 
on that account society was set aside for the 
monastery. Yet the self built up through so- 
cial action and reaction is never able to rise 
superior to society. This is exemplified in the 
history of Confucianism. There is a self not 
social, a human relation more fundamental 
than the relation to society. The Vine of 
which we are the branches is not society. Hu- 
man nature, through identification with the di- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 131 

vine in the incarnation, finds the way of escape 
from all forms of slavery. While in society 
and social in nature, yet the individual man be- 
comes greater than society, strengthened by this 
more fundamental union. The kind of individ- 
ual produced by society has never been charac- 
terized by virility or independence. "If a man 
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, 
and is withered." 

It was the "withered" lives produced by Con- 
fucian society, the supreme virtues of which 
were loyalty and filial piety, against which Dr. 
Ebina directed his attack. He was prompted 
by a sense of need widely felt in Japan, the 
need of other virtues than these two just men- 
tioned — the need, for example, of such virtues 
as the love of truth, justice, purity, individual 
initiative, and enterprise. Hence, as I have 
said, the movement is ethical in character as 
well as political and intellectual. And while the 
address of which I have been speaking touched 
the deeper aspects of the problems, there was, 
nevertheless, a failure to occupy the Christian 
point of view in one important respect. It is 
the point in which Japanese Christianity has 
yet to take up more advanced ground. To Dr. 
Ebina, speaking with his nation's history be- 



L32 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

fore his mind, seas the real burden of 

the individual. The complaint to which he gave 
earn) inst social tyranny. 

'Hie burden was in the outward >t in 

the inward will. This cry finds expression 
often, indeed, in the Psalms and even in the New 
iment. "They have- compassed me about 
with words of hatred, and fought against 
When Christ said that his 
«yok isy, he may have had in mind, in 

of the Pharisees, the burden 
of tradition, and the Law. But. the cry issuing 
from the inmost depths of the human soul is 
the lamentation occasioned by the weight of sin. 
Paul was not speaking of social bondage, nor 
was he oppressed by a the burden of 

ty, when he cried: "O wretched man that 
I am! who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death?" It was the weight of sin he felt. 
He was not personally free. "That which I do 
I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; 
but what I hate, that do I." It was for this 
reason he called himself a slave, saying: "I am 
carnal, sold under sin." And it was from this 
bondage that deliverance came to which he re- 
ferred when he exclaimed, "I thank God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 133 

Tokyo. 
/. A Preparatory Meeting in Tokyo. 

On the day the National Evangelistic Cam- 
paign was inaugurated union prayer meetings 
were held in every town and city in which a 
Christian congregation existed. The opening 
of the campaign was followed by the holding 
of shuyokwai, or preparatory meetings, for 
pastors and workers. I was invited to speak at 
the shuyokwai in Tokyo on "The Intellectual 
Presentation of Christianity to the Japanese." 

It occurred to me that this was a curious 
subject on which to speak at the beginning 
of a great evangelistic campaign; but I had 
learned to conform to suggestions made by the 
Japanese and not, at any rate, to put them 
lightly aside. Usually some good reason lies 
back of the suggestion. A national campaign 
for a wider preaching of the gospel in Japan 
could not take for granted much that would be 
presupposed in a Christian community. An 
apologetic defense, for example, would be more 
necessary in a country like Japan in order to 
clear away current objections and misunder- 
standing given circulation to by other religions 
in the field. Much exposition would also be 
required in view of the presence of many who 



L34 Jajpan. 

possessed no knowledge of the Scriptures. This 
work lays the foundation for the direct evan- 
gelistic messa a 

At the 8huyokwai in Tokyo, in discussing tlie 
subject assigned to me, I saw an opportunity 
to set up a claim for an appreciation of Christ 
not to be had through Intellectual speculation. 
The influence of Hindu philosophy extends 
throughout the length and breadth of Asia, 
one evidence of which is the general habit of 
viewing religion from the standpoint of the 
intellectual consciousness. This attitude of 
mind has been strengthened by the educational 
development in modern Japan. The modern 
universities established in different parts of the 
country exert a commanding influence. Even 
the Christian propaganda lias been most suc- 
I al among the intellectual classes of the na- 
tion. No small proportion of the membership 
of the Churches is made up of students. 

I thought it might be well to call attention to 
the fact that Christian theolog3 r , the intellec- 
tual apprehension and expression of the Chris- 
tian verities, owed much to the pulpit and little 
to the chair. One needed only to retrace the 
course of Christian history to find that the 
great theologians were preachers. The men 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 135 

who had contributed the most enduring theo- 
logical ideas to the Church were, as a rule, men 
of large practical experience. They were men 
who had seen Christian truth put to the test 
or who had witnessed its effectual working un- 
der the varied conditions of individual and so- 
cial life. They were interpreters, not of ab- 
stract ideas, but of truth in experience. 

I singled out the question of the divinity of 
Christ, which is the central problem in Japan, 
in order to give a practical illustration of the 
importance of experience as a basis of a sound 
theology. I did not believe that the problem 
of the divinity of Christ could be solved in the 
schools. Whether Christ was divine or not was 
a question to be finally tested on the field of 
life. When Christ had been presented to the 
laboring population, the farming class, the 
mercantile community, and the womanhood of 
the nation, and his power had been demon- 
strated in these various social spheres, then ma- 
terial would be in hand on which to base a true 
estimate of his person. It was through his 
presence, not only in the individual, but in the 
various fields of social life, that his true nature 
became known. It was not through the forma- 
tion of abstract ideas wrought out in the clois- 



136 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

ter as standards of truth to which the age must 
be made to conform, but in the interpretation 
of life am ace as affected by Christ that 

a true theology was to have its source. It was 
sonable, i! to look forward to the 

ri>e of a sound and fresh theology as a result 
of tlie nation-wide preaching of the gospel to 
all ( society which, it was hoped, the 

movement now launched would accomplish. No 
nation could create its own theology until a very 
general evangelism had been carried into effect. 

It is only by keeping truth in close contact 
with life that truth may be preserved. The re- 
ligion founded upon the Christian Scriptures 
is the only one which lias succeeded in over- 
coming the discrepancy existing in other reli- 
gions between popular religion and the faith 
of the learned few. Whenever theology has its 
roots sunk deep in the popular experience, and 
whenever popular experience has been perme- 
ated with the higher truths of the Christian re- 
ligion, there has been vitality in theology, while 
popular religion has been free from ignoble ele- 
ments. Those who look upon the struggles of 
the early Christian centuries as being nothing 
more than interminable controversies of a sub- 
tle description look only upon the surface of 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 137 

things. Athanasius was unyielding in his con- 
tention for the divinity of Christ, not because 
of metaphysical interests, but owing to his firm 
conviction that if the Church let go its hold 
upon the divine in Christ it would relinquish 
the only ground of hope for the redemption of 
decaying Roman society. The Arian movement 
did not have its source in the metaphysics of 
the schools. A lowered view of the person of 
Christ came to prevail as a result of the great 
number of unregenerate men brought into the 
Church following upon the conversion of Con- 
stantine. A high view of the person of Christ 
cannot prevail except in a Christian community 
permeated with the regenerating influences of 
the Spirit of God. 

As I have already said, I felt that the sub- 
ject could be dealt with most profitably by 
challenging the order of knowledge and expe- 
rience in the traditional thought of the East. 
The highest experience is not reached through 
intellection, but the highest attainment of the 
intellect is conditioned upon experience. The 
native Church in Japan is one of the great, if 
not the greatest, creations of modern missions. 
It has passed through more stages than the 
Church on any other mission field. Besides con- 



I i mpaignvng for Christ m Japan. 

quering its own native environment, it has over- 
come modernism from the West, the various 
forms of skepticism prevailing in Western 
countries. But the native Church has not ar- 
rived at a full-orbed conception of the person 
of Christ ; but this problem is on the way to 
solution. As Christ more fully permeates Jap- 
• society as a vital force, imbues daily life 
with his presence, and transforms sentiment 
and thought and conduct, the glory of his per- 
son will become more manifest. The signs will 
be multiplied as he manifests his glory, as at 
Cana of Galilee. In other words, a construc- 
tive and adequate theology must rest on foun- 
dations laid broadly in national life or in the 
life of the race. By being "fruitful in every 
good work" we may "increase in the knowledge 
of God." The Japanese have seen in Christ 
divine characteristics. There has been great 
advance in their apprehension of the personal- 
ity of God. The sense of personality in them- 
selves, of the worth and dignity of life, has been 
immeasurably enhanced. The overthrow of 
pantheism is near at hand. Christians feel that 
they owe to Christ a distinct .uplift; they have 
been translated from darkness into light, ele- 
vated from a low and natural plane to a high- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 139 

er, nobler, and more spiritual plane of living. 
If there is a lack of appreciation of Christ at 
any point, it is in an inadequate understanding 
of his mediatorial and redemptive work. Now 
that great national evils perplex and trouble 
the nation, the opportunity is presented for an 
apprehension of Christ from the point of view 
of reconciliation and redemption. It will be 
discovered that in him, and in him alone, the 
problem of sin has its solution. 

II. Preaching at Vanity Fair. 

On Sunday evening, October 4, my appoint- 
ment was to preach at a Methodist chapel in 
that part of the city of Tokyo known as Asa- 
kusa, which is the name of one of the four most 
densely populated wards of the city. These 
four wards constitute the "East End" of this 
great metropolis. 

The street car landed me at Kaminari Mon, 
or Thunder and Lightning Gate, within a block 
and a half of the Methodist chapel. On alight- 
ing from the street car, I was in the heart of 
one of the world's greatest pleasure resorts. 
Night had dropped down around like a curtain ; 
but there was a glamour to the scene, the elec- 
tric burners converting its gay sensuality into 



"UO Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

a sort of dismal grandeur. The throng moved 
this way and that, their voices mingling with 

the noise of music and the rolling of wheels. 

The Vanity Fair pictured to us by John 
Bunyan was imaginary, with ki its merchandise 

and delights and lusts of all sorts''; its "jug- 
glers, cheats, . knaves, rogues to 
be seen there at all times.*' But the scene be- 
fore us v ie drawn by the imagination; 
it was real, tragically real. A spell was upon 
the multitudes who, enchanted, moved rapidly 
toward the various places of amusement, little 
aware of their exposure to perils, though as 
much in danger as the night flies which dance 
about a burning flame. 

Within a short distance there were two 
world-renowned institutions — one the Asakusa 
Temple of the Buddhist Tendai sect and the 
other the Yoshiwara, or, as some one has called 
it,^ the "Nightless City." In the heart of all 
this amusement and vice is the great temple of 
the Tendai sect. This sect is founded upon 
philosophic Buddhism ; and its criticism of the 
Xcw Testament, often reiterated and with far 
greater emphasis than it protests against sin, 
is that the sacred Book of the Christian religion 
is superficial. It contains no philosophy. Bud- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 141 

dhism, on the other hand, is "deep." To my 
mind it is a great mistake to reply to the Bud- 
dhists by setting up a claim that the New Tes- 
tament does contain a philosophy. To me there 
is no philosophy in the Bible. It is a Book, not 
of abstract ideas, but of life and power. 

Buddhism indeed is "deep." It contains a 
subtle and in some respects sublime philosophy ; 
but it has left the masses under the weight of 
ignorance and in bondage to the world. It has 
not effected social reforms. The presence of 
the great temple does not purify the neighbor- 
hood. The great Asakusa Temple stands in 
the very heart of Vanity Fair, and it is not only 
helpless in the presence of the carnality that 
goes on night and day, but winks at it. 

The other institution which I have mentioned 
is of such a nature as to forbid a discussion of 
it. It is the place where vice is segregated and 
clothed in the form of respectability and where, 
according to the government statistics, three 
thousand "white slaves" live in the worst form 
of human thralldom. It has been called the 
"Nightless City," yet so dark is it that not the 
dimmest ray of a single star in the heavens falls 
upon it. 

When I left the street car I asked some one 



142 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

near by where the "Yaso" place was, this being 
the name for *^JL•^lls ,, among the people. No 
one seemed to know of any "Yaso" preaching 
place around (here. But a jinrikisha man said 
that he could lake me there; so I rode with him 
I a side street, soon found in 
a private residence what was to me a bright 
. an oasis in the desert. A small company 
already gathered and, under the leadership 
of the pastor, were beginning the evening wor- 
ship. I felt a thrill of inspiration as the voices 
of this little company of redeemed men and 
»unded out into the night air the mcl- 
of sacred song, singing a hymn which com- 
menced with these words: 

Weeping will not save me! 
Though my face were bathed in tears, 
That could not allay my fears, 
Could not wash the sins of years. 

When I thought of the great temple, so in- 
effectual in the midst of worldly pleasure and 
sin, and when my thoughts went back to the 
scene pictured in the seventh chapter of Luke, 
to the "woman in the city which was the sin- 
ner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in 
the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box 
of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 143 

weeping, and began to wash his feet with her 
tears" — when my thoughts returned to this 
great scene, the words of the chorus of the 
hymn never seemed more precious in the 
preaching of the gospel, and especially when the 
congregation returned again and again to the 
refrain : 

Jesus wept and died for me; 

Jesus suffered on the tree; 

Jesus waits to make me free. 

He alone can save me. 

Mr. Suzuki, a pastor of one of the Tokyo 
Presbyterian Churches, was my comrade in this 
service. After he had preached, it came my 
turn. Over against this scene of vain mirth and 
wantonness I chose as my theme "The Chris- 
tian's Joy." (Rom. v. 1-11.) I spoke of the 
rejoicing of the believer in the hope of the 
glory of God, of his rejoicing in tribulation, 
and of his joy in God. I gave particular em- 
phasis to the fact that this joy, the nature of 
which was not to burden the pure life nor lead 
to vanity, had its source in right relation to 
God and freedom from a life of sin. The con- 
gregation listened to both sermons with inter- 
est and attention. They sat on the mats in 
Japanese fashion, though many stood outside, 



144 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

listening from the street. They were too timid 
to press into a Christian preaching place and 
probably too prejudiced to take a seat with the 

tian con.. 
The street on which the chapel was located 
was called Shoten Street. "Shoten" is the name 
of a deity worshiped near by, whose image was 
the head of an elephant and the body of a man. 
This god is worshiped by merchants as the god 

in. His 

booth and shop, and even 
the temples thems< . led to have money 

as their object, the fleecing of the crowds that 
thronged to that part of the city. 

The small congregation of devout and faith- 
ful men and women seemed nothing over against 
the vast area occupied by a Buddhist and su- 
perstitious population; but the Christian has 
long known what it is to fight with the minor- 
ity. Our battle is not determined by numbers. 
"One may chase a thousand, and two put ten 
thousand to flight." As I returned to the street 
car I felt a peculiar sense of gratitude, even 
an elation of spirit, that the Methodist banner 
had been raised in that part of the city and 
that the challenge had been thrown down for 
hand-to-hand conflict with these strongly in- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 145 

trenched forces representing the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. 

III. The Quaker Testimony in Tokyo. 

On October 11 I went in the evening to 
preach at the Friends' church, located in the 
Shiba District, in Tokyo. Most of those in 
attendance were young people. On the premi- 
ses, besides the building in which the congre- 
gation met, there were a girls' school and two 
or three mission residences. 

The room was well filled, though rain was 
falling. The leader announced that they would 
bow their heads and be led in prayer by any 
one whom the Spirit prompted. After a few 
moments of waiting, the delicate voice of a fe- 
male could be heard in the part of the church 
occupied by the women. An earnest prayer 
was offered which not only gave evidence of the 
reality of the faith, but also was a witness to 
the liberty Japanese women enjoy through be- 
coming Christians. This prayer was followed 
by that of the leader ; and after singing two or 
three hymns, the assistant pastor of the Fuji- 
micho Presbyterian Church preached. After 
he had gotten through, another hymn was sung, 
when I took up the theme and spoke for nearly 
10 



140 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 

an hour. At the close of the service an invita- 
tion was given, and a good number decided to 
enter the Way. 

The Quakers in Japan, led by Mr. Gilbert 
Bowles, are true !<> the traditions of their peo- 
ple in the testimony they are giving in behalf 
eace. Militarism in Japan has its roots 
sunk (hep In Japanese history. For a thousand 
years the military clans have been predominant 
in the affairs of the nation. Notwithstanding 
the Immense growth of industrialism and edu- 
cation in recent times, the military ideal still 
holds a foremost place. 

In another respect the spirits of descendants 
of George Fox might well have a word to say. 
''The Life, Trawls, Suffering ;, Christian Expe- 
rience, and Labor of Love in the Work of the 
Ministry" is one of the most interesting books 
to be found in the English language. In this 
volume George Fox, the author, declares in one 
place: ''When the Lord sent me into the world, 
he forbade me to put off my hat to any, high 
or low." How one would welcome a reformer 
like Fox, who is under the necessity of lifting 
his hat many times a day in obedience to a pre- 
vailing courtesy ! Again George Fox says : "As 
I traveled up and down I was not to bid peo- 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 147 

pie 'Good morrow' or 'Good evening,' neither 
might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one. 
This made the sects and professions rage." If 
time were not working for the emancipation of 
the people from the weight of custom, one would 
be inclined to pray for a modern George Fox 
to deliver Japan. What bowing and scraping 
and "good morrowings" are necessary if one 
observes politeness among the Japanese! But 
the ceremonials of the ancient Chow dynasty in 
China, handed down to subsequent generations, 
are found by men of to-day to be too cumber- 
some for the prompt and free movements of 
life in the modern world. The generation of 
Japanese now coming into power need no in- 
centive to revolt. They are too ready, if any- 
thing, to rend the garment of fatal circum- 
stance and custom, the effect of which in the 
past, it is now believed, has been to stifle noble 
aspiration and to condemn life to a meaning- 
less round of tedious monotonies. Indeed, the 
fever of negation in Japan has not taken on 
a political coloring, but shows its antipathies 
toward social customs, the complex network of 
which it would set at naught in the interests of 
a life more replete with impulse, originality, 
and adventure. 



148 Campai r Christ m Japan. 

What a splendid location the Friends' Mis- 
sion has for its schools, its houses of worship, 
and its n Not far from the Keio Uni- 

versity, in the vicinity of Shiba Park, and in 
one of the best residence neighborhoods of 
Tokyo, the mission headquarters they have es- 
tablished give to the missionaries responsible 
for this work a great point of advantage in the 
capital of the empire. 

IV. From a Buddhist Carnival to a Christian 
Rally. 

The next appointment in connection with the 
national c during the meeting of 

a Continuation Committee in Tokyo, under 
who^e initiative the National Evangelistic Cam- 
paign was undertaken. The committee, made 
up of representative Japanese leaders and mis- 
sionaries, held its session during the day, on 
October 13, and in the evening there was a rally 
in the public auditorium of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. Fifteen speakers had 
been announced, but only five appeared w T hen 
the roll was called ! 

A pastor once said that he read nothing but 
the Bible and the daily newspaper. He read 
the Bible in order to know what the people 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 149 

should be, and he read the newspapers in order 
to find out what they really were. Better than 
reading the newspapers is a close and living 
touch with the people themselves. The night 
before I spoke in Tokyo at the Christian rally, 
at which a thousand Christians were present, I 
had a thrilling experience in a great Buddhist 
throng. There is a Buddhist temple, called 
Hommonji, at Ikegami, about three miles from 
Omori, a suburban town next to Tokyo. The 
great Nichiren festival reached its height on 
that evening. I went with a companion who 
was interested in seeing the sights at Ikegami. 
We left the railroad at Omori. There were 
probably one hundred and fifty thousand peo- 
ple along the way and within the precincts of 
the temple. Through the long street, lined with 
shops and booths, the throng passed, those on 
one side of the street going to and those on the 
other side coming from the temple — a current 
of living beings moving in opposite directions. 
Bands of devotees, each carrying a great um- 
brella-shaped float, followed each other at in- 
tervals and were both coming and going with 
the moving multitude. Going before each band 
there was a man advancing who held aloft a 
pole which formed the center of lighted silk 



150 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

lanterns of various shapes. Swinging these 
lighted lanterns from one side to the other, he 
leaped and danced as he went along. I was re- 
minded of David, dancing with all his might 
when the ark came into the city, and so leaping 
and dancing as to cause Miclial to despise him 
in her heart. Every Nichiren Buddhist had a 
drum, which he pounded while repeating inces- 
santly the mystic prayer formula of the sect. 

All along the way traveled by the great mul- 
titude were all kinds of intoxicating liquors for 
sale and things to eat of every sort. If I may 
be indulged the use of American slang, I would 
say that there was as great evidence of "booze" 
as of Buddhism. We pressed our way along to- 
ward the temple and were sometimes so closely 
pressed in the crowded thoroughfare that we 
could scarcely get our breath. The noise in- 
creased as we got nearer to the temple. The 
bands supporting the floats would stop occa- 
sionally, and the men would stand in a circle 
around the banners, beating their drums and 
dancing. Near the foot of the hill, before as- 
cending the stone steps to the temple, I heard 
some one calling my name, and on looking 
around I recognized Bishop Cecil, with two or 
three of his friends. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 151 

We got together and, with great difficulty, 
worked our way up the flight of stone steps to 
the temple. After reaching the top of the hill 
and the temple grounds, the noise of the drums 
and the voices of the people repeating their 
prayer formula were deafening. We felt that 
we were in the midst of bedlam. Bands would 
arrive at short intervals ; and when they reached 
the end of their long journey at the main altar, 
their dancing and praying and beating of 
drums reached a state of frenzy. As they 
leaped up and down I thought that I could al- 
most hear the ancient priests on Carmel crying, 
"O Baal, hear us!" It is said that Nichiren 
was the only prophet in all the past history of 
Japan. He was intensely earnest, if not fanati- 
cal. Here in this multitudinous noise, amid the 
dancing, praying, and frenzied beating of 
drums, one could witness the influence of the 
man whose zeal had reached across eight cen- 
turies of history. 

Standing on the temple grounds and looking 
down the flight of steps and along the crowded 
thoroughfare stretching into the distance, the 
procession, the floats, and the lanterns formed 
an impressive spectacle. If religion is a mat- 
ter of pageantry, the height attained here could 



152 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

SCar •'• No one could doubt 

that tlR ' was intensified 

amu Nichiren Buddhists on this occa- 

sion; but all v [itjj ghow 

Parade. A priest, clothed in brocaded silk, 

d stand. I saw 
llim ! fti0D of the Buddhist scriptures 

rehea ^ b head at the time, 

and the entire con □ bowed their heads 

• But I saw no evi- 
dence of preaching, Instruction, or exhortation. 
We descended the flight of steps, moving with 
iIlc thr aori, our 

Jhausted. We had been 
in a whirl and excitement, in the press and 
tide, in the movement of the people go- 
ad coming, and we felt as if our bodies 
had been put through a mill. 

When I stood before tlw Christian audience 
the following evening and remarked that I had 
been to Ikegami the night before, there was 
some surprise. Intelligent classes in Japan no 
longer regard with seriousness these great re- 
ligious festivals of the past. They connect 
them with the remaining ignorance and super- 
stition. It was perfectly evident to us that 
the Nichiren festival was patronized by the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 153 

plain and unsophisticated population. We 
were aware that such would be the case before 
we went. Nevertheless, it is good to mingle in 
the great mass movements of human life and 
catch something of the spirit which animates 
the people. Out of the rank and file the future 
takes its rise. Jesus was interested in the un- 
meaning multitudes and loved the poor. In the 
poor he saw, not an occasion for pity, but a 
field for rich spiritual harvests. The mad gam- 
bols of the superstitious throng we had wit- 
nessed the night before were perversions of in- 
stincts in which lie hidden the thirst for immor- 
tality and aspirations for God. 

The Christian rally in the Young Men's 
Christian Association hall was enterprised by 
the Continuation Committee. I called attention 
to the Edinburgh Conference, from which the 
National Campaign and our Continuation Com- 
mittee had taken their origin, on the one hand, 
and to the Eucharistic Congress, which met at 
Montreal about the same time, on the other. 
Both were Ecumenical Conferences ; both took 
as their keynote words from the last conversa- 
tions our Lord had with the disciples. But, on 
the one hand, religion was a matter of forms and 
ceremonies mingled with much superstition; on 



154 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

the other, there was a virile Christianity which 
relied upon the preaching of the Word rather 
than upon the observance of a rite. I g 

forth my profound conviction that the need of 
Japan could be m< t only by preaching. By the 
prophetic utterance alone could the masses be 
vitalized; and the earnest application of Chris- 
tian truth to mind and conscience, heart and 
will, was the sole means to he found for deliv- 
ering the multitudes from rudimentary forms 
and gross superstitions. The Church can be 
kept free from the leaven of Baalism and Ju- 
daism only by means of the Word. "Ye are 
clean through the word which I have spoken 
unto you." The Japanese have no need of 
ceremony or parade in religion. Their native 
religions have become a matter of feast days 
and forms. Under the observance of ceremony 
the religious and moral consciousness has sunk 
into abeyance, even as the candlelight swoons 
in the atmosphere of odorous incense. The 
writer of tbe Epistle to the Hebrews contended 
against a religion of shadows and forms. He 
it was wbo said that "the word of God is quick, 
and powerful, and sbarper than any two-edged 
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of 
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 155 

and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart." It is of such an instrument that 
Japan is in need at the present time. 

V, A Lopsided State of Society, 

One Sunday evening my appointment was to 
preach in that district of Tokyo known as Shi- 
buya. Besides the four densely populated 
wards which constitute the "East End" and 
which are located on the flat ground along the 
Sumida River, the remaining districts in Tokyo 
are made up of hills and constitute the resident 
section such as would be called "West End" in 
a modern American or European city. It is in 
these eight or nine wards that most of the mis- 
sion churches and schools are to be found. The 
preaching place visited on the present occa- 
sion was in this part of the city, yet on the 
outskirts where new developments were taking 
place in the expansion of the residential dis- 
tricts of Tokyo. 

We left the street car some distance beyond 
the Aoyama Gakuin, crossed the suburban rail- 
way tracks, and passed along the street on 
which we had been told the preaching place 
was located. On our right our attention was 
attracted to a street crowd, gathered around an 



1 56 






m Japan, 



American missionary who was speaking bare- 
headed in the night air. It was Rev. W. S. 
Woodworth, at whose chapel the evening serv- 
ice was to be held. His beard was white with 
age; but with youthful spirit and zeal and with 
freedom in the use of the Japanese Language, 
he was preaching to the street crowd whose re- 
spectful attention he was commanding. 

We found our May to a Japan 'nee, 

in a quiet place a little oil' the main street, 
which had been rented by the American Chris- 
tian Mission, of which Mr. Woodworth was a 

member, I'm- use in holding their Christian serv- 
ices. A Japanese dwelling lends itself readily 

to use as a preaching place. The people sit on 
the mats, so there is no need of chairs. The 
rooms are separated by sliding paper doors 
which form partitions. These can be easily re- 
moved, and the whole dwelling can be converted 
into a single room. The greater number of the 
leading congregations in Japan, now housed in 
church edifices, began their history in private 
houses. There is a warmth of sociability in a 
congregation meeting from week to week under 
such conditions which is too often lost after 
the assembly occupies a public meeting place 
set apart for the purpose. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 157 

There was a good attendance at the service 
of which we are speaking. In fact, the room 
was crowded, and the people sat close together 
on the mats. One of the Japanese pastors in 
Tokyo was my fellow worker on this occasion. 
He was a unique preacher among the Japanese. 
He was quite unmindful of the formality so 
strictly observed by Japanese ministers in the 
pulpit. Frequently the audience would burst 
into a laugh at something he said. The theme 
of his discourse was the one-sided advance 
characteristic of the times. He arraigned soci- 
ety for its yielding to materialistic influences, 
for its worldly interests and short-sighted 
aims. He deplored the prevailing state of irre- 
ligion. Somewhat after the manner of Peter 
Cartwright he sought to give emphasis and 
point to his utterances by unusual gestures. At 
one stage in his sermon, for instance, he de- 
clared that the Japanese society was lopsided. 
He paused, then began to move the upper part 
of his body slowly to one side, until it was at 
right angle with the rest of his body and his 
head halfway to the floor. It was a curious 
antic ; and yet how truly expressive of the state 
of Japanese society ! Scarcely in the history 
of the race has a nation become so thoroughly 



158 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

rbed in secular matters as has Japan dur- 
ing the past fifty years. Fortunately, there is 

neral recognition at the present time of the 
importance of bringing up the other side, of 
developing the spiritual nature of man, in or- 
der that the nation may regain the true equi- 
poise of life, 

VI. A Buddhist Priest Converted Because a 
Christian Scrubbed His Back, 

On Sunday evening, November 1, my ap- 
pointment in Tokyo was at the Takanawa 
church, a Presbyterian congregation. It is 

what we would call a college church, it being 
the place where the faculty and students of the 
Meji Gakuin worship, where Dr. K. Ibuka, Dr. 

William Imbrie, Dr. T. M. McNair, Mr. J. C. 

Ballagh, and others well known attend Chris- 
tian service. We found the church well filled, 
though the weather was not favorable. Rev. 
K. Imai, of the Baptist Church, was my fellow 
speaker. 

In his sermon Mr. Imai told the story of his 
conversion from Buddhism. He had been a 
priest of the Shingon sect. There is some sig- 
nificance, therefore, in the passage of Scripture 
chosen by him for his text reminiscent of the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 159 

past. His text was the verse : "Woe unto you, 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are 
like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed ap- 
pear beautiful outward, but are within full of 
dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." 
(Matt, xxiii. 27.) He was first attracted, he 
said, by a group of Christian young men who 
were praying and singing on the corner of the 
street and inviting the people to come to the 
preaching service at a church near by. This 
was when he was a Buddhist priest, and he con- 
fessed that he was impressed with the earnest- 
ness of these Christian young men. The sec- 
ond manifestation of Christian earnestness 
about which he told was when he was in the 
public bath. A young man surprised him by 
volunteering to scrub his back. He said that 
the young man could not have known that he 
was a priest, for his robes were hung up in the 
lockers. It was the spirit prompting the cup 
of cold water, or rather the washing of one 
another's feet, that made an impression on him. 
Again, he heard Christian preaching, his curios- 
ity and interest having reached a point suffi- 
cient to lead him to seek a closer contact with 
the Christians. He attended a public evangel- 
istic service at the Shinko Club, in Kobe. There 



160 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

he heard Rev. T. Miyagawa on "The Soul of 
Man" and Dr. J. II. De Forest on "Christian 
Sacrifice." These discourses were a revelation 
to him of aspects of Christianity he had not 
known. He heard others preach the Christian 
gospel, and soon a struggle came on in his soul, 
and this in turn led to a break with his religion 
and his past associations. lie thought at first 
that he would remain a Buddhist and embody 
the good teachings he had learned from Chris- 
tians into his religious life. But it so hap- 
pened that one of the Christian sermons he had 
heard was on the text: "Neither do men put 
new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, 
and the wine runneth out, and the bottles per- 
ish ; but they put new wine into new bottles, 
and both arc preserved." This text made clear 
to him the way that he should follow. He did 
not believe that the new wine could be con- 
tained in the old bottles. He pictured the per- 
secutions and the sufferings brought on as a 
consequence of his renunciation of the Buddhist 
religion. He rejoiced that he had been led out 
into the light himself and that a number of his 
relatives had followed him into the faith. 

The Christian Literature Society has pub- 
lished a small book in which an account of the 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 161 

conversion of this man is told by himself. As 
the frontispiece, there is a picture of Mr. 
Imai in his Shingon robes, in a garment of beau- 
tiful brocaded silk, with a hood and cape at- 
tached, coming down over the shoulders. By 
the side of this is a picture of Mr. Imai as a 
Christian pastor. He appears in a foreign 
suit, with black Prince Albert coat, and there 
is a certain humanity in his appearance which 
one looks for in vain in the vacant face of the 
former picture. This volume is being widely 
read and has become the means of turning many 
to the study of the Christian religion. 

Mr. Imai's sermon was intensely interesting 
and very effective, but too long-drawn-out. 
Kipling says, "East is east, and west is west"; 
but this is not true where it is a matter of en- 
croaching upon one another's time. The hour 
was so late when Mr. Imai completed his story 
that I caught up a sentence from his sermon 
in which he spoke of his astonishment when he 
read in the words of Christ: "Blessed are they 
that mourn." This is a sorrowful world to the 
Buddhist, a world of fleeting shadows and bit- 
ter disappointments, a world essentially of suf- 
fering. Buddhism has seen no blessing in pain 
and pronounces no beatitude on suffering. 
11 



162 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

This thought, I felt, might well be elaborated. 
For ten minutes I gave emphasis to the gospel 
which could say to men: "Rejoice in tribula- 
tion." Christianity Is a religion of the cross. It 
more deeply and more correctly the trage- 
dy of human existence than does Buddhism; but 
it is the only religion which sings. Under its 
gracious dispensation, instead of the thorn 
there comes up the fir tree, and instead of the 
brier there comes up the myrtle tree. "It is 
appointed unto them that mourn in Zion to 
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy 
for mourning, the garment of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness; that they might be called 
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
that he might be glorified." 

At the close of the service the pastor, Mr. 
Osaka, called for decisions and had blank cards 
distributed to the audience for the inquirers to 
sign. There were many responses to his call. 

VII. The Mayor of Tokyo on the Need of 
"Spiritual Civilization." 

Each reign in Japanese history bears its own 
title. The long reign of the late Emperor, 
which began in 1868, was called Meiji, or En- 
lightened Era. The present reign is called 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 163 

Taisho, or Great Righteousness. The title 
chosen for the present reign may be said to 
express national aspiration. During the late 
reign Western civilization was introduced. It 
was indeed an era of enlightenment. But the 
Japanese feel the need of greater ethical ad- 
vance. They are hoping that the rule under 
the present Emperor may have righteousness 
as its outstanding feature. 

In honor of the present Emperor and to cel- 
ebrate the beginning of his reign a national ex- 
position was enterprised, to be held in Uyeno 
Park, Tokyo. Magnificent buildings were 
erected, and various products of soil and fac- 
tory were exhibited. It was. indeed a creditable 
display, considering the short period during 
which Japan had shared with the West its in- 
dustrial advance. 

The Christian bodies having churches in 
Tokyo, under a union committee, sought to 
take advantage of the occasion for a wider 
spread of Christian ideas. The National Evan- 
gelistic Campaign was now in progress, and 
with the aid given by the Campaign Committee 
the local committee in Tokyo was able to secure 
a footing near the entrance to the exposition 
grounds. Everything was preempted at a high 



16-4 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

price; so the Christians, in order to hold meet- 
ings, were compelled to use a storeroom for 
their services. On Sunday afternoon the open- 
ing service was held, and, according to custom, 
invitations were sent to the officials. The little 
storeroom was crowded to its capacity. Many 
present were from the remotest interior of the 
country. The members of the committee were 
present) and Rev. II. Hoshino, a Presbyterian 
pastor, and Colonel Yamamuro, of the Salva- 
tion Army, were the preachers for the occasion. 
The usual practice among officials is to send a 
shuliubun, or letter of congratulation, written 
in high literary style. When the proper time 
comes, this is read by an assistant sent from the 
office of the official who is the author of the 
congratulatory letter. 

But, to our surprise, Baron Sakatani ap- 
peared in person and accepted a seat on the 
platform. He listened with great attention to 
two very earnest sermons. When called upon 
for words of congratulation, instead of read- 
ing a shukubun he gave an earnest address. 
The mayor, though not a Christian, is a man 
of fine character, broad sympathies, and ideal- 
istic tastes. No official in Japan is held in 
higher esteem by the Euporean community. 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 165 

His words on this occasion were listened to with 
great interest. He pointed to the splendid 
buildings on the exposition grounds and said 
that our preaching place presented a very un- 
favorable contrast to these. The exhibits in 
the exposition building were the pride of Ja- 
pan, representing, as they did, remarkable ma- 
terial advance. But he had no hesitation in 
saying that what we presented was of far great- 
er significance and importance than anything 
else forming a part of the exposition. Spirit- 
ual realities were the need of the times. In 
these things the development of Japan had 
fallen far behind the rate of progress in ma- 
terial things. His sincere desire was that 
Christians in their efforts would succeed in 
awakening an interest in religion among those 
who came to attend the exposition. He hoped 
that "spiritual civilization" would be greatly 
furthered during the Taisho reign. 

By "spiritual civilization" the mayor of 
Tokyo did not have in mind the pure worship 
of God, freed from the polytheism and idolatry 
practiced in the past. He was speaking rather 
from the standpoint of his Confucian training 
and as an ethical idealist, with an accent added, 
truly Christian in spirit, as to the vital impor- 



166 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

tance of religion. There is, indeed, a feeling in 
Japan that the mythology, the polytheism, the 

idolatry long practiced and still in vogue 
among the masses of the people are a weight 
upon the nation. But the conviction prevails, 
a latent conviction, that these anachronisms 
Will be thrown off by the forces of enlighten- 
ment, education, and culture at work now in 
Japanese society. A man occupying a place in 
national affairs, like that of Baron Sakatani, is 
more concerned to see spiritual ideals made 
dominant in the face of the prevailing material- 
ism and worldliness. 

There is, indeed, a twofold problem confront- 
ing Japan, the solution of which will go far in 
determining the future destiny of the nation. 
There is, first of all, the moral problem. Thir- 
ty years ago statesmen in Japan had before 
their minds in vision a great secular State, for 
the establishment of which they were deter- 
mined to pursue an enlightened and modern 
policy. They were going to create a State in 
which religion would not occupy an indispen- 
sable place. Western countries, they believed, 
were gradually eliminating religion in favor of 
science and secularism ; so why should they rec- 
ognize the necessity of religion in the program 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 167 

laid out for the new Japan? This was the 
spirit controlling the minds of national lead- 
ers until a few years ago. But a marked 
change of opinion has taken place; a very dif- 
ferent attitude toward religion as an element in 
national life now is manifested by responsible 
statesmen. The prevailing secularism has been 
productive of social evils, the rise of which was 
not foreseen, but the menace of which has been 
the occasion of sober reflection as to national 
foundations deeper than those laid by science 
and education. As a cure for current skepti- 
cism, vice, dishonesty, unrest, and irreverence, 
it is felt that a heroic remedy alone can be ef- 
fective. Many are looking hopefully to the 
Christian religion at this time. The conviction 
is felt that the vital power of this religion is 
sufficient to arrest the downward trend and to 
solve the nation's moral problem. 

But there is a second question. It is the 
problem of national optimism. The pressure 
of this question is not felt; it arises only when 
the final outcome of the present awakening 
is reflected upon by those who see things in 
their ultimate issues. It is true that a youth- 
fulness seems to have returned to this nation, 
the history of which stretches across many cen- 



168 



Campaigning for Christ fa Japan, 



tunes and the fields of which have been plowed 

With innumerable furrows and made- golden 
With the return of countless harvests. Fifty 
rears ago the nation was apathetic and inert 
Charged now with the great work of progress, 
ng the need of various improvements and 
reforms, and looking for paths of political and 
industrial adventure, Japan seems to have 
thrown off completely the dormant fatalism. 

The sap of life seems to rise and even to over- 
flow with energy and enthusiasm. The music 
m the minor key, with the plaintive notes of 

Wh.ch Buddhism brought solace to the old Ja- 
pan, do longer pleases and „o longer prevails- 
or, if it still prevails, its strains are dying away 
ike the last faint and ebbing sobs of the temple 
bells, rung as day sinks into night. 

But is there ground for hope that this move- 
ment will become permanent or that optimism 
will replace the traditional tendency to see life 
with the shadows upon it? If there be nothing 
more satisfying than worldly prospects, it is 
not unreasonable to suppose that Japan will 
grow weary of the game of life. If the human 
heart be compelled to seek its consolations in 
nothing more than increase of wealth and na- 
tional glory, or even in knowledge, it will not be 



Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 169 

long until the soul will seek to beguile the hours 
away with dreams of some distant Nirvana, in 
which the delusions of the day fade away as in 
the darkness of the night. If the world be 
without significance and life without a goal, 
what else can be reasonably expected as the 
outcome of human striving? Without some en- 
during prospect, the shadows will return as life 
advances, even as the color of the Japanese 
morning-glory deepens from day to day. All 
the striving of the present time may turn out 
to be a mere unconscious reaching out after 
something, the working of a blind impulse at 
the heart of the world, such as Buddhist philos- 
ophy had already interpreted in its condemna- 
tion of existence. But once discover that near 
man's deepest strivings there is the Spirit who 
helpeth his infirmities and with inarticulate 
groanings frames mute human impulses and 
aspirations into a prayer and brings human in- 
tercessions into accord with the will of God, 
then the wo rid- will is no longer blind, but is il- 
luminated with significance and becomes the 
ground of rejoicing and hope. We are then 
no longer condemned to a meaningless striving, 
"not knowing what to pray for as we ought." 
We are assured that the mysterious impulse at 



170 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 

the heart of the world, guided by the infinite 
Spirit, issues in sonship and ultimate triumph. 
To lay this deeper foundation of national hope 
and optimism by bringing our message of good 
tidings of faith and hope to the multitudes in 
Japan is the task to which we as Christians are 
called 



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